Woke up early and got off at 7:15. The other two hikers were probably only 15 minutes behind me but they were going the other direction to the Hot Springs. As expected it rained all night long and just about the time I got ready to take off it let up a little bit but it was still raining.

And that remains the theme of the entire day.  It rained on and off throughout the day. My feet stayed wet for most of it but there were two shelters where I stopped to take breaks and I took my socks off for about 10 minutes just to let my feet dry out a little bit. But as soon as you put wet socks back on they’re instantly wet again.

Two sections of trail were on high exposed ridges with bad weather bypasses since the entire mountain was in thick clouds.  I took the ridgeline in this section about 2 years ago, so I remember the views. And they were good views. But seeing as everything was completely socked in the clouds, there were no views to be had so why bother slipping on the rocks. The bypass routes stayed about 50 to 100 ft lower elevation and basically just parallel the ridge line.

I got to Flint Mountain Shelter at 6:45. A little earlier than I expected so that was nice. The terrain today has been relatively easy and not too many rocks to slow me down.  Within 10 minutes of arriving at the shelter it started to rain pretty steadily. I was considering going further as there was a road only 2 miles ahead, but I’m glad I stopped. I was able to cook dinner and eat in the dry shelter. And now I’m listening to it raining pretty heavily all night long.