Day 3

Fri July 24 14 miles I never realized how much I was missing out by sleeping in the shelters every night. This morning I awoke to a beautiful sunrise straight over the cliff from where I was atop the ridge. After an hour of hiking I came to an overlook where I watched the clouds and fog roll through the valley a thousand feet below me. Upon reaching Prearisburg, I gave up on the idea of hiking to the closest food joint and charged my phone and refilled my water at the Rendezvous motel close to the trail. The man taking care of the place was incredibly friendly, and I didn't end up leaving until 1pm. I really wasn't feeling well for the next bit of hiking so I laid down for a nap and awoke quite refreshed. The climb up the mountain was killer, even though I know it shouldn't have hurt so bad. After reaching the top of the ridge, I came to a powerline with at least 5 varieties of wild flower in bloom. I laid down there in the sun and before I knew it, I was asleep again. Later, I continued hiking, but my joints were hurting too bad. I stopped for dinner and stuffed myself full. About .1mi later I was treated to an amazing sunset from atop a wide open bald at Rice Field Shelter. I've seen a thousand sunsets, but this was by far the reddest orb I've ever seen. I hiked another 40min to the next water source so I could wash dishes and have some drinking water. I was exploring for the spring and somehow stumbled right upon it as I was looking for my way back to the trail. I'm sleeping out under the stars hoping the weather report is correctly predicting no rain tonight.