Day 15 - Winding Stair Gap to Wine Spring - 8.5 miles

We catch the 11.00am shuttle from Franklin to take us back to the trail. In the office of the motel there is a free computer with internet. We check our email and meet Food Network who downloads a copy of Waltzing Matilda with chords, so that he can play it on the banjo that he is carrying on the trail. We leave Jannie behind at the  motel, and don't see her again.

Before we depart from Franklin we chuck our 'itinerary' in the rubbish bin. This is a laminated document we have carried from Australia, telling us where we should camp, every night for 6 months to enable us to complete the 2185 miles in the 6 month time frame that we have for our visa. Digby has worked out that we need to average 12.5 miles per day, every day. Here is a cut and paste from this document

At the beginning of day 15, April according to our planned schedule, we are meant to have already walked 161 miles. Our timetable bears no resemblance to reality. We made it to Hiawassee on the 10th April, 3 days behind our planned schedule. Franklin did not even make it on to our itinerary. It is the start of day 15 and we have only walked 107.6 miles from Springer Mountain.  We are 53.4 miles behind our planned itinerary. This is approximately 5 days behind schedule. Chucking the itinerary in the rubbish bin is a very uplifting and mind releasing moment. We are now walking in the moment. Forget the schedule. Concentrate on each day and do what we can - if we don't make it so be it. This is a major mental achievement. The laminated itinerary is also quite heavy - 4 pages of laminated paper - I am now at least 100gms lighter in my load. We are hoping that as we get fit we will catch up on the mileages that we are behind. At the moment we cannot walk 12.5 miles in one day - but the theory is that as we get fitter we will be able to increase our distance and make up for lost ground. There is no point stressing about it. We decide to just walk.

It is a hard slog up to the campsite. The last mile is a killer. It is getting darker and trying to rain. We can feel the temperature dropping. We share the campsite with Jamie, from Maryland, who makes a living selling mortgages, except no-one is buying mortgages at the moment, with the Global Financial Crisis still underway. With business so bad he decides to walk the trail. We give him the trail name of 'Tea Cozy', for his beanie that he wears.

Cooking dinner