Winturri Shelter (1,932 feet) mile 1724 to The Blue Barn “Hostel” (407 feet) mile 1741.1 for a 17.1 mile day.

What a day today was!! Wow!! We woke to heavy rain on the shelter, and stayed in there drinking coffee and eating breakfast until it slacked off a little before heading out. We knew going into today that it would be rain all day long just by looking at the weather forecast and radar. The remnants of hurricane Fred brought hours of rain upon us today. It rained on us for about 13 of the 17 miles hiked today! There were a few views that were draped with clouds as the rain would slack off from time to time.

We stopped to take what would end up being the shortest lunch break we ever took since we started on trail. It started out as a nice little humid lunch break but it quickly turned to a lunch break with drizzling rain.

We weren’t going to just sit in the rain and eat, so, we got up and took off. Our goal for the day, the blue barn “hostel”, where dominos delivered and there was a bed. I have hostel in quotes simply because the place was totally free and if there was a bed available you could sleep in it. There were no other services available for the hiker, except coffee in the morning with Linda the owner. On the way down for our final decent before we started a grueling road walk, we passed through several areas where the maple trees were having their sap removed and they were being piped down the mountain somewhere. Just passed this was a beautiful hardwood tree area filled with maple trees. I can only imagine how beautiful this would be in the fall.

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