Day 27: First Day Out of the White's

Today was an incredible day. I payed 7 bucks for an AYCE breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs at the hostel.  After that I sat around slowly getting ready to leave and finally left at 10am.  I patched my trekking pole using a section of a broken aluminum pole sitting at the hostel  that I cut using a hacksaw.  I then ducktaped the scab over the broken pieces of my pole.  It held for the 20.1 miles I hiked today so thats good.  My right ankle swelled up some after twisting it twice yesterday and I found two ace bandages in the hiker box at the hostel so I wrapped both my ankles today.  Wow did that help and I will continue to wrap them while they heal.  It is incredible how God provides right in my time of need. I packed out a 12" sub and coca cola for lunch today and boy did that hit the spot.  The terrain is so incredibly easy now that I am out of Maine and the White's which are the two hardest parts of the trail.  There are still mountains obviously but they are so easy to climb.  I feel like the trail up to this point required a lot of brute strength to hike and now it will be more of an endurance thing.  It is a lot of dirt, leaves, and pine needles which is so nice.  I could have easily done more miles today but with the ankles healing and the incredible view from a tentsite on the top of Smart mtn I decided to quit hiking at 6:30pm.  The weather was spectacular today and is supposed to stay that way for a long time.  From what I hear the trail from the White's and north through Maine has been bad weather all summer like I experienced.  But the weather to the south of the White's has been really nice all summer.  I cannot emphasize how nice it was to hike today with dry socks and shoes.  I am not sure if I will take as many pictures as much.  I have entered the "green tunnel" and there wont be as much if any alpine style environments like I have had up to this point so not much worth taking pictures of.