Miles: 729.2 | A humid, foggy walk into Daleville brings relief in the form of a cheap motel room, hot showers, and a chance to reset. After some frustration over cliff camping and Leave No Trace boundaries, the day softens with Tex-Mex, margaritas, and the steady rain outside the window. New gear, a budget-friendly resupply, and finally tackling moldy, half-dried clothes help restore a sense of control. It’s not glamorous, but it’s grounding—one of those necessary town stops that quietly puts things back on track.
We got up around 7am, we missed our 5am goal but it was better than noon like our first day together! I actually slept a few hours that night and I started feeling a little bit better. It had rained hard the night before, I was glad it stopped by the morning. It was humid and foggy. We headed out of camp as Tiger Lily and Captain Ahab arrived to get water. They said they had all camped up on the cliffs... in their tents. I was a bit peeved by this. It bothered me so much that people didn't respect the habitats they are walking through and the volunteers that work so hard to maintain the trail that we are so privileged to walk on. I don't mean to be the one that harps on the rules but I also recognize our privilege and the hard work it takes to maintain the trail. If it says 'No Camping' it usually says it for a legitimate reason. I explained that to them and Rick James who came down just after them and had also camped there. Captain Ahab and Tiger Lily seemed to get it. Rick James didn't really care. He said, "I have a hammock I'm not ruining anything." A common misconception.
I shook off my annoyance and left camp. We ran into Half Moon and Savage again as we left. We chatted for a few minutes it seemed like everyone except Ahab and Lily were stopping in Daleville. Even though we'd just stayed at Four Pines, I wanted to stay a night in Daleville.
We had packages arriving there and my clothes smelled terrible because I hadn't let them dry completely. My entire bag smelled like mold and rot. We settled on getting a room at the Howard Johnson that was apparently right off the trail.
We walked quickly to town and when we arrived we dropped off our stuff in our room (a king sized bed for only $50 a night!!) and showered. We headed across the street to the Tex-Mex restaurant, our favorite, and as we ate the rain started coming down hard. We had a few margaritas while we waited for the rain to stop.
We went over to the strip mall afterward and picked up our packages at the outfitter. One of my packages still hadn't arrived yet. I got a new, lighter, and (hopefully) quicker drying hiking shirt, a titanium pot (less than half the weight of my old one), and new dirty girl gaiters (space print to match Miles, I had lent out my old ones and never got them back).
Miles got new shoes (thanks his mom!). We went to the Kroger after and I got my most affordable resupply yet and we used my pack to carry the food back to the motel. $40 for 5 days, I was making progress! I'd realized I'd been spending too much money and I decided I needed to start cutting back.
We went back to the motel and napped. Miles took care of the laundry this time. We woke up at 10pm and couldn't fall back to sleep so we got up and packed and organized our food bags. We went back to bed around 1am.