10 June - slack pack back to Dalton

Cloudy with rain most of the day. High in the upper 60s. It was wet all day with occasional rain except hard rain in the early afternoon.

Hiked 17 miles today. That is the most we have ever hiked. True, we were slack packing (not carrying our heavy packs but only a day pack. But it was still the most we have ever done so we feel good. Actually, I felt better than I did after an eight mile day two months ago.

Tom Levardi took us up north and dropped us off. Knee deep headed north. We hiked south, back to Dalton, with Mo Fo and Dave the Man. They left us behind. I found out why today. They are both Marathon runners. Also found out that Knee Deep is a Navy Seal. I am out of my league out here. Also found out tonight that Dave is 73! Can't believe it. He ran part of the trail today and finished an hour before the rest of us.

Tom will take us back in the morning to the same spot and we will continue our hike north from there. He is a great guy and spends a lot of time helping hikers. He took us to an outfitter tonight so we could get new poles, gas for the stove, and a sleeping bag liner.

Not much wildlife today but there was yesterday and I forgot to mention it. We say two very large wild turkeys that ran over a hill. We we crossed it, they ran down hill and took off flying down the steep hill staying low to the ground and trying to be evasive.

Then we saw another grouse that put on quite a spectacle. She jumped up in the are making noises like new puppies make (Wendy's description but accurate). She flew up then back down and repeated this try to attract attention to her and away from her nest. She did this only four feet away from me at one point. Finally she move away but kept making noises to get us to follow her.

Lastly, we saw what I thought was moose scat and a set of tracks that could have been from a moose. I thought it was unlikely but Tom said that they do come down this far occasionally. Hope we see a moose on this trip.

Found out that Dalton is the home of Crane paper and that they make the paper for all the US currency here in Dalton.