Day 21

Day 21: 🔥🔥CRUSHED IT🔥🔥going up Cheoah Bald (mile 145) out of the NOC. I had been looking ahead, worrying about this day for a couple of weeks now, an 8 mile climb UP with a 3300 ft elevation gain, but I ended up feeling so good and was really proud of my pace. 🙏🏼
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@blazing.sandals carried a few beers up, so I enjoyed one at the top, while we chatted with a super cool girl from Germany. She was section hiking, and somehow took a detour for a few days with some friends she had made to ... New Orleans??!! and was now back on the trail. So awesome. .
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The Mountain Laurel were blooming, and we saw, what I *think* was my very first rattlesnake. BIG guy, at least 3 feet long and 4 inches in diameter, right on the trail. SO. GROSS. And terrifying. .
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We hiked down to Stecoah Gap, (mile 150.5), where Lonnie picked us up in his minivan to shuttle us to his hostel near Robbinsville, NC. Here we’d stay a few days to wait out some thunderstorms (have I mentioned @blazing.sandals doesn’t like thunderstorms?), which was ok with me because my feet were aching. .
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The next few days would prove to be some eerie ones. #at2019