Sprout Day 192 (Wednesday, October 5, 2016)

Woke up early but it was cooooooold so it took a few extra minutes to get moving and to get the motivation to get out of the sleeping bag!  We were planning on getting up at 5:00 or earlier but I ended up deflating the air mattress at 5:30. The sun isn’t rising until around 7:30 so I needed my headlamp.  The usual routine took place, I got up and put in a lot of water for breakfast and started taking the food bags down.  We had a couple packs of oatmeal and a lot of cowboy coffee for breakfast.

We set up camp 0.6 miles before Doc Knob Shelter and we had to stop there for water.  We were out of water and the next water source after Doc Knob was nine miles down the trail.  It took a little longer than expected there because the water source was a puddle in between a couple of big rocks.  You could hear the water flowing under the rocks but with this dry season all we had was the pool.  It was cold and clear so no complaints from us.

We had a good day overall.  There were a few climbs but nothing we haven't seen before.  The last half of the day was down a big decline and then relatively flat after that.  We hiked 16.3 miles and are staying at Dismal Falls Campsite. We plan on doing a little over 18 miles tomorrow and staying at Helveys Mill Shelter tomorrow night.  We heard from a couple of Northbounders that it is supposed to start raining tonight at midnight, then stop at some point, and rain during the early morning and most of the day tomorrow.  It made sense to just enjoy today for what it was and stay at Dismal Falls instead of pushing any further. If it's going to rain tomorrow we're going to get wet and there's nothing we can do.  At least we know it's only for one day.  We're getting picked up Saturday morning and we're going to be pretty close after hiking tomorrow. 

I think on the way out of here we're going to go to this store down the road called Trents. Hopefully we can get something good to drink and maybe a little treat to get us through the day since it's going to be bad weather.  Not sure what time we're getting up tomorrow.  I guess it all depends on how hard and if it is raining in the morning.  Fingers crossed we get up and it's still dry.  I'd like to be able to put everything away and keep the tent dry!  We've been getting bigger miles in lately and it feels good.  After we go to Works farmhouse on Saturday we’re probably going to try to start getting as close to 20 a day as we can.  I love being on the AT but I think it's time we get home and spend some time with family right before the holidays.  It's been a crazy ride and we still have a lot of miles left.  I’m excited to see what the rest of Virginia is like and really excited for the Smoky Mountains!

Day: 192
Miles hiked: 16.5
Total Miles hiked on the trail: 1584.4
Baby Bear: 1
Bald Eagle: 1
Bluegill: 2
Butterflies: 8
Chipmunks: 3
Cows: 24
Crawfish: 1
Deer: 20
Donkeys: 2
Grouse: 1
Horses: 15
Hummingbird: 1
Inchworm: 1
Really Big Dog: 1
Mice: 2
Moose: 2
Nest of bugs: 2
Newts: 2
Owl: 1
Rabbit: 1
Red Squirrel: 1
Skunk: 1
Snail: 1
Snake: 3
Squirrels: 12
Toads: 3
Trout: 2
Turkeys: 4
Turtles: 107
Vultures: 6
Woodpecker: 1