Giles County

Shortly after we went to sleep I've heard howling from quite a distance. I wasn't too much worried about it but then it got louder until they were clearly at or near the road where we set up our tent... You could hear the breathing and the paws of them at our tent. But then they just went on :) Julia slept through all of that ;)
Because we were almost out of water we went straight to the next Shelter about 4 miles away and had our late and extended breakfast there with some newly met trail mates. It was very humid this morning so we were glad that it started to rain around noon. It was the first day of rain after about a week and the refreshment was really necessary although it was accompanied by a thunderstorm. So the downpour latest for about an hour in which everything got soaking wet. Too less water, too much water... Never happy :P Typical German...

On our further way we met Giggles again. The first time we met was in the Smokies and our ways crossed for several times. She is super friendly and always happy. She already hiked the PCT and shoots for the triple crown next year. It's always nice to see her again. So we told her about our challenge to make it until Harper's Ferry by 4th of July and she joins us. But for her it's much easier to make that 25 miles per day...
Regarding miles!! Wow, already hit the 600!! Just 4 days after the 500, so we're picking up the pace now :)

And we've got some trail magic by a fellow thru hiker. His name is Cool Breeze and he's doing a supported thru hike, which means that he has almost no backpack, a van where he sleeps at night and gets resupply of food and water directly along the trail. Although this makes it easier, you still have to hike the same distances. He also has a blog where a photo should be: coolbreeze2200.com
His supporter is a German named Mick, trail name "Sherpa" as he is coordinating all the supplies and driving the van to the road crossings. Together with Giggles we ate almost all of their trail magic, tangerines, chocolate and pistachios. We spent more than an hour in the evening with them and chatted. It was easy talking to them and so entertaining that we forgot about the time.

At around 8:30 we still felt good and went on to hike to the next Shelter as we didn't want to set up our tent. So this was our second night hike and it went much better. I used the better head light and we easily made the remaining 3.3 miles where we disturbed everyone that was already sleeping :D It was a good day and a great mileage.Read more