Davenport to Groundhog Creek Shelter

Hiking out of Davenport Gap and pushing on to the Groundhog Creek Shelter we hiked 9.8 miles on our first day by ourselves on the trail. This day was complete with two luxuriously long breaks, one at Pigeon River to wash clothes and ourselves (even after just a few days this was a welcome stop!), and one at painted branch to filter water and treat ourselves to a Nutella infused lunch.

It was a beautiful day and we were happy to have Groundhog Creek Shelter to ourselves. We set up our tent inside the shelter as we knew rain was imminent. This was a great idea as it rained through the night, and we had the added benefit of not adding 2 pounds of water weight (with the tent being wet) to our packs (well, really to Chris' as he's carrying the tent =) )

As we arrived with sore feet to the shelter, it was becoming very apparent that my feet had no less than 6 blisters, three on each foot, on different spots... the next few days were bound to be a bit slower??