I wake up at 5:30. The Professor is faster than me at packing up and heads out. I feel Ike I’m playing a Tetris game trying to fit all my food into my pack.

The morning light makes the trail glow gold through the trees it’s beautiful.

I leap frog a few times with The Professor through an old burn section. Young pine trees are growing, it’s nice to see the forest come back.

A huge thank you to all the trail crews who clear all the downed trees from the trail! Wow, that must have been a lot of work.

Professor and I break for lunch. I’m able to finish some journal paintings.

Professor shares a special cooking his wife Terry baked and sent him in his resupply box! It’s so yummy! Wow! Thank you!

Back on the trail I have some time to myself. I run into The Breeze, I thought he was behind us! It turns out he took an alternate that was shorter.

We pause at a really cool ranger cabin.

They have an old spigot that still works! So cool.

I continue hiking on the official trail and The Breeze takes another shorter alternate.

The views are stunning. So many wild flowers!

I start to get tired. I can see The Professor on the ridge behind me. He is really good at taking breaks. Seeing him reminds me to take a break and I feel better.

The trail leads is down into a valley. I stop to make dinner a mile from our planned campspot. The Professor catches up and sits with me while I make food. He heads out but forgets his water bottle! He comes running back! I would have carried for him! Oh well haha

The spot we had wanted to camp at was already filled with tents! There are so many of us CDT hikers!

We back track down the trail to some stealth spots under some pine trees. It’s tight but I manage to fit my tent under the branches.

True Grits joins us! We hang our food and I look at options for camping tomorrow. We’re coming to a big alternate trail option that looks like it will have a lot of stream crossings and blow downs (trees that have fallen across the trail). It should make for a fun day.