Start: 0845 - Terry and Nancy's
End: 1900 -  Belden Town
Miles (today): 23.5
Miles (cumulative): 1324.5 (1176.5 PCT, 91.5 alternate, 56.5 off)

Eighteen. I tripped/stumbled on the trail eighteen times today.  LOL It's ridiculous- what the heck is wrong with me?  Sometimes I'll even look back to see what it was I tripped over and won't see anything, which is when I start to think the trail is messing with me.  The worst part about tripping is that the action of catching myself causes my pack to bounce off my hips; it's particularly annoying when I have the pack perfectly situated and then mess it up by tripping over a dumb rock (or a phantom rock if the trail chooses to mess with me).

Anyway.  We had a great breakfast of biscuits and gravy, eggs, and fresh cantaloupe before Nancy took us back to the trailhead.  It was a great breakfast that kept me full for hours once back on the trail - I'm so grateful Terry and Nancy opened their home to us.

The hiking today was fun, even when I tripped over phantom rocks.  I just walked like everyone has been telling me to do and the hike went just fine. Feelings of disappointment did threaten to emerge when I read the trail register near where Coppertone had been - a lot of hikers mentioned his trail magic and I felt so jealous.  I'm so motivated to hike big miles right now so we don't miss him at his next stop.

Not too long after my lunch break, Safety First caught up with me and we hiked together for the rest of the day.  I'm so grateful he let me walk with him because we went down over 4000 feet the last 7-ish miles, which is pretty steep.  Having Safety First to talk to distracted  my mind from the hellish downhill.  Banjo even fell in behind us after a while which just made the whole experience even better.  Before I knew it we were crossing the train tracks into Belden. It was great.  Nick wasn't too far behind me (he really rocks the downhills).

Belden is preparing for a big music festival this weekend (I'm pretty sure the festival is a huge rave) so there's a vibe of anticipation and excitement in the town.  People are actually starting to arrive for the festival and people watching is fun.  This is what I love about thru-hiking - we get to see all sorts of interesting places.  I sort-of wish we would still be here for the festival, I'd love to be a part of the experience!

Nick and I had dinner with Safety First, which was nice.  Since there was wifi, Nick spent quite a bit of time trying to order us new shoes (and other things) from Amazon. Sadly, we got the order in too late, which means the package won't arrive at our next resupply in time; therefore, Nick had to cancel the order and he was pretty upset about the time lost.  Ugh.  I really need new shoes but it looks like I'll have to try to get 200 more miles out of these.  We'll see if they (and my feet) make it - the shoes are already starting to fall apart and my feet are mad as hell.

 
Because of the festival, there aren't any accommodations available and the trail angel house (where we sent our resupply) is full.  So Smiles, Dilly Dally, Nick, Dingo, Mobius, and I are camping at this little rest area on the side of the road by the trail.  I'm sleeping on top of a picnic table tonight, folks.  It's such a weird life.  :)

Along the trail: