Unsurprisingly, the slant in the tent meant we would wake up in the night having slowly drifted to the bottom on the tent. Tyler still slept well; Emily didn't fare as well with gravity. When we finally got out of the tent at around ten (we did sadly get up a bit before ten), we saw a familiar face paused near the junction blaze we camped near. It was Funky Stuff! He had camped in the fire tower on top of Mount Cammerer the night before as all the shelters were full and tent sites were minimal. Funky headed off as we slowly got ready for the day. The Standing Bear Hostel, with minor resupply, laundry and beds, was a few miles down the trail. He said he would wait for us there while he charged his phone. The trail crossed near i40 within a mile. Yard Dart was waiting at the crossing with a ton of trail magic. He was waiting for Walkie Talkie to bring her to Knoxville so she could head back to Michigan. His wife, Miss Bobbie, would be passing through the next day. He told us about some of their previous adventures, like their transamerica bike trip from Florida to Washington. They are in the preliminary stages of planning for another one (post trail) on more rough terrain. Yard Dart is also trying to publish a book about the experience. He didn't talk in too great detail, but it seems that the two of them perform some wonderful acts of altruism as they travel for their church (and cuz they are awesome). We ended up talking for about an hour. Just before leaving we wrote Walkie Talkie a birthday note and left her a plastic bug we found in a geocache box the night before.
We made it to Standing Bear as Funky Stuff was leaving to get some miles. We continued on to Standing Bear to get a few snacks for resupply. We were greeted by a strange hostel, building assemblage, commune thing complete with a rooster, one chicken, several cats and a few dogs. The shop, organized a bit like an end of the world bunker, was honor code shopping. As soon as the shopping was done, the skies opened up again. Apparently leaving the Smokies didn't solve our rain problem like we had hoped. While we waited for the rain to let up we caught up with Tenacious, Nighthawk, Roar, and Sushi Roll. We also met Bags, Tater Tot, and Rocket Power.
After about an hour, the rain slowed. We headed out and it started pouring again. We kept going but it was more than a little demoralizing. When the rain stopped again, after a few miles, we decided to scrap the day and make camp before finding Funky. We would still make resupply in Hot Springs in two sixteen mile days. We set up the tent and used near by trees surrounded by poison ivy as drying racks. Soon after, the rain started again. We took down the clothes and went to bed. Goodnight rain.
