Day 25, March 25, 2009

It was a crazy day. It rained all last night and while we were packing up camp this morning. But luckily as soon as we started hiking, the rain stopped. Yes, the rain stopped, but the unfortunately the wind began. The wind was blowing so hard it made a very loud, howling noise as it whipped through the forest. At some points, it even blew one off the trail. We crossed over a couple of big “bald” areas today with large grassy, treeless fields. When we hiked across those fields, we had to lean into the wind or we would lose our balance. It didn’t rain all day and even though there were some clouds, the views were still awesome. We also made really good time today. We got to the shelter before 3:00 pm after hiking 13 miles today. As soon as we got to our spot for the night and got our tent set up, it started raining….good timing! Luckily, since we already had out tents set up, our stuff didn’t get wet. Plus, we are camping next to a shelter that had a covered cooking area! Sweet! One of the guys sleeping in the shelter tonight is through-hiking with a small backpackers guitar. So we got to hear/play some music tonight which was really nice. Tomorrow we are going to hike 18 miles (our longest day yet) to get into Hot Springs, NC. So since its going to be a big day, we are going to bed early. Tomorrow, Friday, we will do laundry, take showers, make phone calls, get on the Internet, and sleep in a bed. It will be nice! XOXO, good night! OUTLOUD