Jesse ended his day at mile 386.0 and at an elevation of 4662. He said Tennessee is giving him a big middle finger before leaving the state….a really big hike up a mountain. Even so, he put in just about 16 miles today.

We were talking about his first few days on the AT and people were looking at him with a pack weighing over 40 pounds and no overnight hiking experience and they looked at him like he was nuts. He was at the back of the pack during hikes. Now,he is taking the lead and really increasing his miles.

This shelter is really unique. It’s an old barn that has been converted into a 2 story shelter. This shelter is super roomy.

Trail magic has become more regular again. There was a group with breakfast goodies for the hikers this morning. He missed out on some trail magic the night before for dinner. It was about 3 more miles up the trail from where he stopped. His knee just wouldn’t allow for anymore hiking for the day.

I asked Jesse about mushrooms and he reports they are finding a bunch of them and some were huge. Even after frying them up they were still a good size. He is also still finding ramps and fiddleheads are still available.

Jesse will be heading to Elk Park for a nero day, tomorrow. He has 3 resupply boxes waiting for him there since we had to bump boxes up a couple spots due to the post offices being closed while he is there. Luckily the tramily will all be staying in town as well so if he has too much food to carry some of his tramily will likely need food.