day 39 - 04/18

well, after 12 days with no rain, it finally poured last night. it then continued raining off and on all day. the mountains need this rain so badly. the only problem is that all the rain i have encountered thus far has coincided with high elevation. it happened to me in the smokies and roan mt and now as i summited apple orchard mt. i am not complaining at all as it is to be expected for spring weather, but it does make for a cold frickin hike. it is hard to believe i went skinny-dipping in a river just yesterday evening. oh, whoops. shhh, don't tell anyone. when i got to thunder hill shelter around noon after summiting apple orchard at 4,225ft. i quickly ate lunch, peeled off my wet weather gear and crawled into my sleeping bag to get warm. the funny thing is that no sooner had i crawled in my bag, when in came another thru hiker to follow suit. it was cold! after warming up enough i got back on the trail and descended 3,547ft to the james river foot bridge, which is the longest on the appalachian trail at 2/10 of a mile. i then made it to johns hollow shelter for some good conversation with a section hiker named "ike." 26.6mi from bryant ridge to johns hollow shelter. 778.4 total.