Day 28

What's brown and rhymes with Snoop?--Dr.Dre.

I slept pretty well last night, until this morning when some asshole was yelling about his food bag-thanks for waking me up. There was frost on our food bags and scout asked if I had frost on mine I said yup, frozen food section! I left camp last again at 9:20 but am getting faster because I catch up to the others. We took a selfie with owl, spider, Lynn and I. It was a gorgeous day for hiking and our biggest mileage day yet. We came across parts of a plane crash and at lunch 3 men on horses...real cowboys these guys were. It would be nice to slack pack on a horse part of the trail! I started in my boots, and at lunch switched to my trail runners. We decided to take on an extra .6 to Mt. cramerer and .6 back to the trail to see the amazing views. On the way up I really had to go to the bathroom...now it's a narrow path with rock ledges, it's Saturday so there are people, "hey look mommy that girl is pooping off that boulder" would not be something I want to be known for! We left our packs at the fork and climbed the rock path to the gazebo lookout. The alternative paths are some of the best views. I felt drunk without my pack, like gumby so weightless and awkward, but amazing! It was so easy. When we came back to our packs, we ate since it was getting late. We still had a downhill of 5.2 miles to the shelter-we booked down that mountain so fast. We were practically running, probably not the best thing for my knees but it is hard to stop the momentum. I am camped right next to the shelter...damn you smokies I pay $20 and can't even camp wherever I want! This is a con for me for sure! This shelter had chain link fencing for the opening...like caged animals. It was strange. Tomorrow morning we will be out of the smokies! It's been amazing but I'm ready to be out and move on. We saw a deer right in front of us on the trail today, it started running right toward us and then stopped, then did it again. I thought it was a dog when I first saw it run toward us-not sure if it didn't see us at first or what!