April 24, 2008

Uncle Johnny, who runs the hostel, gives me a shuttle this morning up to the trail. It's 19 miles from that point back to Erwin, so I'm going to slackpack it. That means I leave my pack at Johnny's , and carry only a daypack (he has a loaner). With my load reduced from 40 pounds to about 5, I make 19 miles, my longest day so far.

Highlight of the day was walking through a USFS controlled burn--smoke everywhere, and fire right alongside the trail as they burned off the dead leaves.