Day 35 The Last Full Day in Tennessee

Writing from my tent at 9PM after hiking further in one day than I ever have before. 


We woke up at 7 and were hiking by 8:15. Camping near a lake caused a lot of condensation so my tent got pretty wet even if the rain stopped around 9:30 last night. I slept quite well and was definitely tired after the 25.5 miles yesterday. 


We began the morning by hiking around Watauga Lake and over the Wilbur Dam. Looking back now it’s crazy to think how far we’ve come since the morning. 




After crossing the dam and ascending a couple moderately steep sections of trail we stopped for lunch at a shelter. The next 15 miles of the day were all a ridge walk, overlooking the valleys and Watauga lake. 



As the day progressed, the ridge carried us to a much wider part of the valley, where the mountains felt further away. Eventually we reached an iconic set of pastures with a very distinctive barn. 




The last few miles of the day were back to a wooded ridge walk. We made it to camp around 7:30 and set up our tents while the sun set. 



We hiked 26.3 official AT miles today. This is 0.1 mile more than a marathon. While I have no pretension to believe I could run a full marathon, there is something cool about hitting the same distance. It took us 11 hours of hiking and we had around 10,000 feet of elevation change throughout the day. Hiking and running are two very different things and I maintain a huge amount of respect for people that can run that distance in just a few hours. I’m pretty sore but all my soreness is the good kind of pain, not from any injuries. 


By hiking as far as we did, we set ourselves up to have 15 very easy miles out of Tennessee and into Damascus, Virginia. We have a room booked and I am looking forward to showering for the first time in a week. Believe me when I tell you I need a shower. 


I think one of the coolest things about hiking a lot of miles is how different the ending location is from the starting location. The woods and the ridge where we are camping tonight is very different from the lakeside beach where we woke up. And the fields and pastures we walked through were nothing like either. We covered a ton of ground today and saw the land change under our feet. 


We hope to be in town for lunch so we will wake up at 6:30 and start hiking pretty quickly. 


With that I’m heading to bed. 


Goodnight,

Walker 




If you want to follow Tyler or Spencer, here are their logs as well:


Tyler: https://tylerat2024.blogspot.com/?m=1


Spencer: https://www.instagram.com/baxter.bound?utm_source=qr&igsh=MWx4MzRqa3M4dGk3Mw==

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