Great Tower of Pain: 100 Miles
Day 9 of the Trail: 16.3 miles hike
This may sound redundant but we woke up early...again...always! To be fair to myself, I do set my alarm for 4:20 am. It may sound absurd to some but it's very practical and functional for our way of life these next few months. Thomas and I are not the the type that can lay around when we need/want to get something accomplished. Also, honestly, the sleep out here isn't that great. We both average 5 hours a night based on our Fitbit watches. Instead of lay around drifting in and out of crappy sleep and shivering from cold, we just get up and get moving. Today, we did 4.5 miles before the sun even came up.
We started with a climb to the top of Standing Indian Mountain. It tops out over 5k feet but the trail is at a very manageable grade. It was an easy climb and easier decent. By 11:00 am we were eating lunch and had already covered 12.1 miles. Plans were being made to continue over the next mountain (the name eludes me), see the fire tower on top, check the 100 mile block, and continue a few more miles on the backside to set ourselves up for an easy day.
I made a call to the Budget Inn in Franklin, NC but was unable to get solid room reservations. However, if we get there by 9:25 am or 11:25 am, then we can catch one of the two shuttles into town that they offer. Our hope is to get a room SOMEWHERE tomorrow because Wednesday evening into Thursday the weather forecast shows thunderstorms. Either way we will be set for a short day tomorrow and two zero days after that.
After lunch we still had the last few miles to go; about .3 of those last few would prove to be a real lung burner. Okay, I have seen plenty of YouTube videos of people at this fire tower in NC but not one mentioned the vertical climb for the last .3 to the top. Don't get me wrong I knew it was on top of the mountain (duh) but *bleep*! Trust me when I say it will hurt going up that sucker. On the up side the view was nice. After climbing the "Great Tower of Pain" we hiked comfortably downhill to our camp site at Long Branch Shelter. Now it's about 2:00 pm, and of course, there is no phone signal. We have plenty of time to rest and chill until tomorrow. It pays to work hard!
