April 18th - 45 - Chestnut Knob Shelter to Helvey's Mill Shelter

It was such a beautiful night I slept out under the stars, I slept well enough not to keep the fire going but still managed to hear all the coyotes about. The sunrise accompanies me while I cook and eat my oatmeal. The plan is to get on it a do some big miles.

The morning is still, hiking through the forest I spook a dozen or so deer and we have a staring contest when they reach a safe distance. Its ten miles of classic Virginia ridge walking and a large decent to Jenkins creek. There's a flat spot by a bend in the creek where Dan and I stop to eat lunch, most of the hikers present last night stop in.

The trail head back up to a ridge and follows an old road bed for a while. these road beds fascinate me for some reason. At some point in history they were used for model A fords, or horse and buggies, or just horses. In a lot of places the care and work that went into creating these roads are evident. on the downhill side of a path occasionally the stone-work retainment is still in tact. The Great Smoky Mountains had some of this too. Someone at some point in history put in a  lot of effort to put  this road here, and I thank them. This is some of the nicest hiking I will do on the trail.

Some rather choice hiking on old road bed.

I am completely exhausted by the time I reach Helvey's Mill. to throw salt in the wounds, the shelter is a half mile off trail. For good measure the water source is 0.3 down a real steep hill. There is also a pile of sectioners here. Canadiaah is the only other hiker from last night to come all this way. Dan and I manage to snag the last two spots in the shelter. Laziness governs all when you've hiked 24 miles. We plot out our current pace and distance left to gauge and end date, but these estimates are doomed.  The AT is too much fun to try and schedule it all out.