Saturday, March 19th

7.9 miles

Total miles 158.4

I slack packed today. Slack packing is so NICE. My knees thanked me at the end of the day. Although there was another steep downhill, my knee didn’t hurt. I was worried about today because I have heard lots of fear mongering about Jacob’s Ladder. Jacob’s ladder is another steep uphill climb. I didn’t find it half as challenging as the climb out of the Nantahala Outdoor Center. It made my day that I didn’t have any trouble climbing the ascent of the mountain.

I met lots of new hikers today. I have a feeling that I won’t see the same hikers that I hiked with a few days ago. I took a day off and most of them were pressing on. Anyway, meeting new hikers is always fun. There was a trio of hikers who were very interesting. One of them designed and sewed his own backpack. I may have just met an up and coming backpack designer. I was very impressed.

It was a very good day.