9:30 am - I'm sitting at the fire tower on Shuckstack Mt. 2300" above the Fontana Dam. Beautiful day but quite hazy...not any good views. Left the shelter at 7:00 this am. There were 8-10 of us staying there overnight. That was the first shelter we had stayed in for the whole two weeks we have been on the trail.
I made it to the top here (fire tower) non-stop from the trail head near the Dam. My personal best, 2300" in 1.5 hours over 3 miles. Speaking of personal bests, I must correct my entry of 3/30, where I wrote that 167 miles was my past best. Make that 267 miles from Denning [?] to Ithaca in 1995 over 18 days.
We were the first to leave this am. "Rachael" was talking last night about buying new boots/shoes. Hope she takes a few more days off. Jim's still trucking up the hill somewhere below. Hope the new insoles help him.
2:30 pm - Just me and a party that would make the horse woman in my life happy. [That must be me??]. A group of 5 guys on 7 horses. They said they were just out for a ride, but they were sawing down blowdowns [trees that have died or been blown down by storms] across the trail and said they would be back next week to work on the water drainage.
We're at Molly's Ridge Shelter fro a snack and some water. The black flies are starting to get bad. Not while you're hiking, but stop and they attack. This shelter has a chain link barrier across the front just like a cage. Sort of a reverse zoo for the BEARS! Lots of signs but haven't seen one yet.
On one hill coming up to the shelter, the wood's floor was covered with small 5 pointed lavender wild flowers about this size with dark stripes. [Sketch omitted].
6:00 PM - Camped at Russell Field Shelter. There's about 8 scouts and 3 leaders in the caged shelters. We're out tenting with the BEARS!!! Jim's heels still hurting. We even exchanged boots for 5 miles or so. No change. Did 14 miles today. Wind is coming up. Rain in the forecast for tomorrow and Monday. No one else from the "Hilton" showed up.