We got up and drove from the rest area, that we stopped at the night before, to Wytheville, VA and parked at our shuttle driver’s house. We then took a shuttle to Damascus and started at The Broken Fiddle at 9:40 AM. We walked on the Virginia Creeper Trail for about 0.7 miles and then crossed US 58 and started our first climb of the section. I kept thinking, ‘If only the whole AT was like the Virginia Creeper, then we could go at least 20 miles each day 😂’. Our first climb was 2 miles and luckily for us it was a nice, breezy day. After the up and down we had about 2 miles flat until the bottom of Saunders Mountain. It was about 2 miles up to Saunders Shelter, where we planned on stopping to have lunch. About 1/4 mile up Saunders Mtn, I heard a noise in the bushes, and I looked there and saw a White Tail Deer. It looked like a young one, but my dad and I were so surprised when we saw it, and confused on why it didn’t run away.

Once at the shelter, we ate some tuna and naan for lunch, took a little break, and then continued on our way. While going down the mountain, my big toes were starting to hurt as they kept hitting the front of my shoe since my shoes had gotten small. I thought I could get one last trip out of them, but it wasn’t a good idea. We had to stop for a bit at a campsite, and my dad used my pocketknife to cut open the front a bit so my big toes had room to breathe. From there the hike was pretty easy with a few ups and downs and a 1.5 mile climb to Lost Mountain Shelter, which we reached at about 6 PM. We decided not to go any farther and just set up here. After eating some Rajma with Rice and Upma for dinner, we went to bed early to be well rested for our steep 4 miles up tomorrow to Buzzard Rock.