June 22 Mile 824

Starting today I get to sleep an extra minute each morning-summer has begun, and the days will begin to get shorter. When you live by the sun, each minute counts, particulaly in the evening. Great water at the shelter. Some of the best tasting so far. Always treat it, but the creek and spring water is very good. Had a great hiking day. After 3 miles of up, got to a big piece of granite called Spy Rock. Great 360 view. Took off out packs and floated up to the top, climbing over big rock outcroppings. Beautiful views of Va. The trail in Va  does not  afford us too many views, so this one is in the top group.
Hiked on til lunch and ate at a pretty overlook. Cisco gave me a scare today. I always hike looking down, watching for rocks and roots that trip me up. He was up the trail a bit and stopped.  I didn't see him til all of a sudden he said "watch out"! I glanced ahead and saw fur. It made me jump back about three feet. It was a dead bunny right on the trail. What happened to the poor thing? Don't like seeing dead animals out here.
Had a very nice lunch on a rock outcrop high above  a valley giving us great views.
Usually it seems  we are hiking up the hardest side of each mtn. The south bounders seem to get the easier trail! Got a break today as we climbed the "backside " of the Priest, a big mtn. Came down the tough side and paused awhile by a pretty rock filled stream as we refilled our water.

Unfortunately, got a new bad blister outside left foot heel. At least the  other one us  ok that I harpooned on the trekking pole. After getting cool by the creek, we started a long hike up a very hot 1000 ft climb at 6 Pm. Finally got to a camping/ shelter area about 7:30. Had to hike further to get water at the shelter, and it was weird as the shelter was empty. Rarely see that. There was a creek in front if the shelter, and from a distance it looked dry, but found s trickle to fill our water tank. It should have been a  big creek, they must be having a dry year.
Had a nice meal and a celebrated a nice day, as we took our time today, and enjoyed what the trail had to offer. No rushing or worrying about any schedule. That's the way each day out here should be .


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