The rain begins in the night. It is relentless, pounding on the tent, sometimes a little lighter, sometimes a little heavier but never stops. You lie there snug in your sleeping bag wondering how you will get up in the morning, get dressed, make breakfast, fold up the tent and get on your way. Then you doze off and wake to the sound of pounding rain. And the light finally comes and peeking out of the tent everything is soaked But the little stove is happy to boil water and the porridge is delicious. Blueberries and strawberries make it extra special. We move slow and it takes time to organise a pack full of wet things but we manage. Arlene is all decked out with a garbage bag skirt and umbrella cap, no way she plans to get wet. 

The rain doesn't let up for most of the day. There is nothing to do but walk, no views, no place to sit and relax so we press on. We go up we go down, the wind blows hard at times when we come around a corner outcrop and it hits us full on. Anda walks ahead to Woody Gap to find a tent site. She comes upon two men just wrapping up their offering of Trail Magic to hikers. They had been set up since 11 a.m. and were giving making and giving away McMuffins and hotdogs. As well they had water and coke. As they were just about done putting everything away they offered several bottles of water which were gratefully accepted. 

The rain finally stopped long enough to set up camp. The dehydrated yogurt for dessert looked less than appetising and ended up not making it to the table. Plenty of people ended their long wet day close to our campsite. We had more trail magic as a young could came up to the site about 7p.m. and made a big fire and brought lots of hot chocolate and 5 gallons of water for all the campers. It is such an amazing feeling to receive such generosity from people you don't know and will likely never meet again. These guys were great, turns out they are making a year book for 2015 Thru-Hikers and they were taking pictures and info on everyone camping. They had both thru-hiked a few years ago and just couldn't let it go. What a wonderful way to end a long day.