March 22nd - Day 21

We started the day planning a 20 something mile hike but after leaving the Smokies and running into Fresh Ground about 5 miles in with a tarp set up making soup, coffee, hotdogs, and many other snacks we had to stop and eat up. Fresh Ground is an awesome guy that loves to give out Trail Magic to the thru hikers and our group has seen him 3 times now. He's the man! We took about an hour or so break there and I still hadn't gone by Standing Bear Hostel where my package was. The 20 mile day didnt seem too promising. We said our thank you's and byes to Fresh Ground and hiked another 3 miles to the hostel where my package was. They sold beer at the hostel so we took another hour to hour and a half break there and finally decided not to do the 20 mile day and just make it to the first shelter that was 10.5 miles from where we started and do a 23.5 mile day the next day to get us right outside of Hot Springs NC by Saturday. We would have a 3 mile hike in to Hot Springs on Sunday where we could hang out and stay the night. I was meeting Mom, Wito and Wita on Sunday so I was excited for that. Somewhere about 2 miles from the shelter I tripped over one of my trekking poles and went down. It wasn't hard and I didnt get hurt but I did bend the heck out of one of my poles. We got to Groundhog Creek Shelter relatively early and it was the first one we would stay at since we got out of the Smokies. It was tiny and we barely fit 7 people in it. We made a big bonfire and hung out until late, about 11:00 PM. It was super late for us so I went to bed quickly.