day 36 - 04/15

today was such a great day. i met a whole group of great people last night at the shelter and then hiked with some today. i first made it to the dragon's tooth, which is this huge stone monolith on top of cove mt that you can, carefully, scale and sit right on the edge. the first picture below is of me sitting right up on the top and edge of the tooth. then i hiked down into catawba, va to a restaurant called the homeplace with a guy named "meats" that i met at the shelter the night before . it had just gooooood homestyle cooking. all tables get fried chicken, then you order another meat (we got roast beef), then it comes with green beans, baked beans, biscuits, gravy, apple butter, cole slaw, mashed potatoes, and apples in sauce. ya, i had like 5 pieces of fried chicken, 3 of roast beef, at least 2-3 helpings of all the sides and then finished it off with 2 dishes of berry cobbler and ice cream. i have started to call the little belly i get from eating these big meals my food baby, cuz it looks like i've got a little bump there cuz i'm getting so thin. i had a big food baby today and it was great! we then hiked up to macafee's knob where the next two pictures were taken. the first is where i got down on my back and shimmied to the edge, looking down the sheer drop. the second is of me standing on the edge where it just drops off several hundred feet. pretty amazing. i had great company hiking today, great food, and then just had great conversation to end the night by the campfire. i am in my hammock without my rain fly on as it is a clear and warm night. hopefully it won't rain! oh, and i passed mile 700 today! just 17mi from pickle branch to campbell shelter. 704.5 total.