It rained all night long last night, the tent held up fairly well but is definitely still leaking. It was raining off and on in the morning, so we decided to head for the next shelter at 12.8 miles and see how we felt. Despite all the mud and rain I managed to keep my feet dry all day, and it never really poured. Early in the day we hit some trail magic, where we got some banana bread and cocoa/tea. We reached the shelter at about 3 and the sun came out. It was crowded so we decided to keep going. As we came to a road crossing a mile before the next campground, we ran into Miss Janet, the same trail angel who gave us several rides in Erwin. She was dropping off a bunch of hikers we knew who also brought beer along, so we had some impromptu trail magic, each drinking a beer and taking one for the road. We are camped at an apple orchard, and we hiked 17.1 miles! The sun is still out, but in case it rains we put the ground cloth back over the top of the rainfly so we stay fully dry. Roan Mountain tomorrow.
