Day 60: A Presidential Seat

Hiked 9.1 miles, staying at the Howard Johnson's in Daleville.

Wow, I can't believe it is day 60 already!

Last night it got cold.  Not the coldest night we've seen by a long shot, but given that we have all sent home our winter gear forty degrees was just cold enough to be uncomfortable most of the night.  As a result most of us were up bright and early to get up and get going.  Why Not was the first out of camp and Dip'n'sip and I weren't far behind.  Dip'n'sip and I hiked together today at a very relaxing pace as we took a nice short ten mile day into Daleville.

Looking down on the valley from the ridge

Early morning view of the valley

Dip'n'sip posing in front of the view

I tried a new breakfast today that was suggested by a bunch of other thru hikers.  What you do is you take a liter of water and mix a packet of carnation breakfast, a packet of hot chocolate and a packet of oatmeal into it and let it sit overnight.  The oatmeal dissolves somewhat and it becomes a shake.  The result is a liter of water in the morning with about 500-600 calories in it!  This is great too because it gets you hydrated right off the bat and gives you calories to burn for a while first thing in the morning.  It wasn't bad, the downside is that it takes another half liter of water to get out all of the remaining oatmeal chunks and you also have to continuously shake as you drink as the oatmeal settles quickly to the bottom.

Looking ahead towards Daleville

On the other side of the ridge was a huge lake

The walk to Daleville was not very difficult and we made good time.  It followed a couple ridgelines before descending down to the town.  We have never passed under so many powerlines in such a short distance though, there must be a big hydroelectric dam around here or something.  We never managed to catch up to Why Not on the walk and Srocket never caught up to us, but we all stopped a number of times to enjoy the views of the valley.  The lighting this morning especially early on was exquisite!

We walked along this rock wall for a long time

Looking backwards from the above photo

This rock was enormous!

We came out onto a main road and Howard Johnson's is two buildings down so it was a short walk to our lodgings.  After a much needed shower and laundry we were finally presentable again!  We headed over to a BBQ joint called "Three Little Pigs" which had excellent food.  Dip'n'sip and I made a solid attempt at trying everything on the menu including their wings (they had ten flavors) of which the Jamaican Jerk flavor was definitely the winner.  I had already had fried cheesecake for desert when we found out that the restaurant provides free banana pudding for thru hikers.  Of course I had to do another round of food for that!  Oh and I also sat in the same chair as George HW Bush while I ate my lunch.  I wonder how many dirty hikers he met while he was here?

9 AM photo

I sat in a presidential seat!

The afternoon was spent with the usual resupply, relaxing, phone calls and eating.  There is a mexican place across the street from us and the four of us piled into there for dinner along with Monster Cheese and Joyride.  While there we saw many other hikers who had just gotten into town, including a bunch of the Tribe and Dinnerparty and Zip.  After dinner we also spent some time catching up with Coach, Twix, Bluegrass and Salsa who are staying near us.  All of the hikers in the hotel (and there are a lot) are in the same floor of the same building.  I'm not sure whether that is to be nice to us or to quarantine us from others, but either way it is a great way to see everyone!