Day 41: May 1, 2021 (12.7 miles)

The Station at 19E - Upper Laurel Fork Campsite

Today was a pretty easy day. I woke up super hungover, it felt like I was moving in slow motion underwater. I gathered up all my stuff before breakfast. The Station provides free breakfast every morning for thru hikers so we ate our fill before trying to motivate ourselves to hike. The Cutshall brought me so much food, I gave away a ton and put lots in the hiker box. We didn’t get on trail until like 10:30am and we all were moving slow.

Chugging along up the trail

Thankfully the terrain today was fairly flat without many climbs so that made the day tolerable. I hiked with Creature, Rocket, and Good Sam the majority of the day. Dumb Horse and Party Dave waited for us so we could have a photoshoot at the 400 mile sign.

It took us a week to cover 100 miles; it took us 12 days to reach the first hundred. Obviously, we are getting stronger and faster.

400 miles! Magic, Creature, Dumb Horse, Good Sam, and Rocket

There were several large waterfalls along the trail and we took out time sitting and enjoying them. The trail followed a beautiful river for a while, it was super scenic today. I was ready to be done this afternoon.

Thankful for easy and scenic terrain today

I listened to a podcast to make the last few miles go by. Our campsite tonight is by a creek and is lovely, my tent is surrounded by rhododendrons and I am happy.

Packed out a couple of beers from that the Cutshalls left me at the Station