Buena Vista Road (1,294 feet) mile 1,068.1 to US Route 30 (937 feet) mile 1,084.9 for a 16.8 mile day.

I’m not sure if I want to be happy or sad that the trail seems to be getting more flat the farther north we go. I want to be happy because the trail is getting more flat, but, with more flat comes less views, less views means more time in the woods staring at trees. I have no problem staring at trees, heck I’ve been in the woods for almost 1,100 miles at this point.

This was an amazing view though, it was a group of trail maintenance volunteers building a new bridge. There was another crew sawing the old bridge into pieces, so we had to go through the creek, on rocks of course, since the bridge was about to come tumbling down!

Today I finally remembered to grab a photo of this pretty mushroom. It is called Amanita and it is a fungi, no fun if you eat it though! This family of mushrooms is cause for more than half of the cases of mushroom poisoning! Some of their kind are edible and some are not, and therefore, I did not partake of this fungi!

Continuing on this day brought blowdown after blowdown!! Blowdowns are exactly what the sound like, tree limbs and sometimes trees blown down by a storm.

The big pine trees in this area that were blown down, they got hit by microbursts that were scattered through this area. Massive trees with massive limbs, and we aren’t talking dead ones! It was amazing to see the power of these winds! The same crews building this new bridge, also was responsible for cleaning up the blowdowns. Clean up is basically cutting the trees or the limbs and then dragging them to the side of the trail so they are out of the way where they then will rot away and decay into the black soil we see daily!

I ended this day with a short walk, off trail, to a grill and got myself a delicious vanilla malt and a hamburger! I waited here for Suzanna to come pick me up! We had a dinner date tonight!!! Always a good way to end a hike, knowing there is a dinner date with a beautiful girl waiting for you!! If you’re wondering, yes, I still ate on our date even though I just ate this burger and malt!

I don’t think she will care, but I took this photo of her on our date tonight. 🥰