We passed the 400 mile marker today! Feels like we've really made some progress now. 18.5% of the trail done! We'll hit 20% at mile 437 in a few days. I was telling Bluebird and Wing It today that I feel fortunate in that there hasn't been a single day that I didn't want to be out here. There have been days when my body hurts and I want to stop hiking for the day or I've been cold or hot, but I have never wanted to get off the trail or not hike the next day. I'm meant to be out here.
This morning we ate breakfast at the hostel's main house. The house is beautiful and the food was even better. There were tables set up around the living area and hikers were everywhere. I ate so much! Yum! Well worth the $12 price tag.
The TV was on while we dined so we saw that there have been major tornado outbreaks across the SE portion of the U.S. We've been cloudy but have avoided any bad weather. We've been really lucky so far.
After digesting for a while, we hit the trail around 11:00. Overall, the trail was pretty flat. I'm loving this terrain and Virginia will be even better. We took a blue blazed trail (side trail) to a spectacular waterfall. Water was cascading over an angular rock outcropping. It was a great place to stop for a snack.
We stopped briefly at Mountaineer Falls Shelter for a late lunch. I'm so sick of tuna, summer sausage, pepperoni, and peanut butter (though I have hardly had any peanut butter on the trail). I need to find some new lunch food options. I had a Zero bar for the first time. It tasted like plastic. Gag! I didn't notice it was made of white fudge when I purchased it. That definitely won't be making it into the resupply rotation. If a hiker thinks something is gross it must be really bad! We'll eat just about anything.
The weather was good so we pushed a few more miles to camp by some falls. We couldn't find any "falls," just some rapids, but we found a good campsite by the river anyway. I really botched my generic mac & cheese preparation. I had previously made a pretty tasty pot of the stuff without having to drain the cooking water. I tried that again and it was a major fail. I ended up with a tasteless pot of orange-colored paste. It was gross, but I ate most of it anyway. Washing the pot out afterwards was equally unenjoyable. At least we had easy access to plenty of water!
Best Thing: BREAKFAST!
Looking Forward To: Reaching Hardcore Cascades and Laurel Falls tomorrow.
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