aklarsen11

Woke up surprisingly rested. Woke up a couple times in the middle of the night. I think some of the hikers kept the fire going until at least 3am to make sure the bears didn’t come back. Planned to do 13 miles to Walnut Mountain Shelter. However, hit quite the up on my way to Max Patch. I had been warned that NC didn’t do switchbacks and that the trail went straight up. My right knee and a toe on my left foot were aggravating me all morning. After pushing 2 16 mile days back to back I think my body ...

I am very proud that I did not zero today and got back on trail. Today is an easy day, just under 10 miles to Groundhog Creek Shelter. Today was a beautiful day. Wore shorts and tshirt for most of the day. ☀️ Took it nice and easy which was good after the mental block of the Smokies. Now this shelter has a lot of comments about bears getting packs and food bags, but I assume there is safety in numbers. Several of the hikers I started the day with decided to stop there, so I stuck with ...

Today is another big mile day, but it’s mostly downhill. It started to snow a little just as I was leaving the shelter. Today is definitely a keep it moving day and try to get to lower altitude. I was hoping the weather would clear up but it continued to snow. Probably about 2 inches accumulated. I have never hiked in my puffy before because I would be too warm. Today I hiked in my puffy and raincoat the whole day. I was ok as long as I kept moving, but as soon as I stopped for a break it was unpleasant. ...

Got up early this morning to make the 8:30am shuttle back to Newfound Gap, but as I was walking down the road a nice couple from Tyler, TX volunteered to give me a ride. Since the shuttle was for only the first 8 hikers I decided to take the hitch. Tried to take it nice and slow since I knew I had quite a few miles to do. I started to feel gassed around mile 5, but just kept eating and taking breaks. Pecks Shelter was at mile 10, but I had heard that it was .75 miles of trail and down a steep hill. ...

Slept in this morning. Skipped breakfast since I was still so full from dinner yesterday. All I did was eat, get my resupply and watch tv. A nice relaxing day. Which will be needed since I need to push 15.7 miles tomorrow. 🤦*♀️