Spivey Gap (3,184 feet) mile 333.1 to Beauty Spot (4,436 feet) mile 354.9 for a 21.8 mile day!

We started at Spivy Gap this morning, uphill for a little bit following the stream. It’s been kind of flat for the most part today! Which is strange but good. We have currently about 2 1/2 maybe 3 miles left to get to the 10 mile halfway point, doing a 22 mile day today. Going from Spivy gap over to Beauty Spot. It’s been raining all day long hands cold cold cold finally starting to warm up the hands a little bit, and the rain has finally started slacking off some, and that had warmed my hands up a little easier.

Today, Birdy and I met a guy called Spokes, he rode his bike from Anchorage, AK to his home in Virginia, some 4,100 miles, later, we found that after hiking with him for a while, today was his birthday! Happy birthday Spokes, nonetheless we got down to our 11 mile point at uncle Johnny’s Hostel, and later saw Spokes coming down the trail and met some woman who gave him a red sack. I thought maybe it was Uber eats. But come to find out it was his wife! She surprised him with birthday cinnamon rolls, and he brought them over and laid them out on the table for the other hikers, who were sitting around, to eat. He had no idea she was making the 6 hour drive to meet him at this point on trail! So sweet, so thoughtful!

Our descent into Uncle Johnny’s and the Erwin, TN area had been covered in fog and rain as most of the morning had, but as we came down in elevation we dropped below clouds enough to see this beautiful view of the Nolichuky River.

The Mountain Laurel has been blooming nicely along the trail today!

Finishing lunch with some other hikers at UJ’s we marched on for our climb up to Beauty Spot. It was a fairly uneventful climb up the mountain, on these long days like this, especially with the rain, or change of rain, we rarely stop for breaks, even at shelters, just because we have so much ground to cover.

We followed a beautiful little creek for a while again on this climb, which always makes the day better with the sounds of cascades along the path.

We continued on and made it up to Beauty Spot, and what a beauty it was!! We finally got onto a bald and had some half way decent weather on top to enjoy the views as we waited for our ride back into town.