Today started off with moderate hills through a burn area. For several miles, the forest was burned on both sides of the trail (though the trail itself was left unscathed). This was clearly an intentional burn, and not a forest fire, though it's unclear whether this was related to the recent fires in the area (as in, a controlled burn to limit the spread of the actual fire).
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Today started off with a terrific all-you-can-eat buffet at the B&B, and fully charged, we headed out for a planned 18.4 mile day to the Moreland Gap Shelter. Shortly after returning to the trail from the hostel, a ”Bigfoot Sanctuary” sign greeted us with some amusement.
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Our day started off with the climb up Hump Mountain and its several false summits. Being bald, and the high point in the area, it was also very windy, and the climb up the mountain was greatly slowed by having to brace from falling over from the wind. (We were practically leaning over to the side into the wind just to keep balance.
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Today, we planned on a 20 mile day, which would allow us a short 6 mile day into the Mountain Harbour hostel tomorrow. Later, we realized our plan to Bradley Gap was only 18 miles, because math is hard. (Actually, we confused Little Hump Mountain with Hump Mountain.)
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I finally slept well last night, and the morning was just cool enough for me to not want to get out of my sleeping bag. What finally did it was Beast having words with the guy who set the fire last night. All I really heard was Beast saying, "You just don't give a shit," but the conversation apparently started with fire guy asking Beast if he "pooped on the trail". (Seriously? What kind of person would even ask that?!)
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