If you bet it would snow today you win. Either way I lost with the weather today. The temperature hovered around freezing the entire day. I began the day scarfing down a quick breakfast before venturing out and back onto the trail that has become my home. Even as I walked the first few miles I felt something working against me. I didn’t know what it was yet though. It was especially obvious something was going on as I climbed the first of many hills for the day. As I am known to do, I pushed the feeling off once again. I trekked along and during the second long hill of the day I met Rosy Eagle who is a section hiker that is just finishing up his last couple sections of the AT. After I passed him the snow began to fall along with my drive and motivation. For a good 15 minutes I just sat on the ground completely exhausted. It’s not that I didn’t want to go on, it’s that my energy had left me after only 16 miles. I am not one to give in or give up so I worked with what I had. Oreos, chips and a second lunch would have to do. Between the long miles I have been doing for a good two weeks at this point I think the sudden failure is attributable to not sleeping well or for long enough recently along with continually running a calorie deficit in my diet. Hopefully I can sleep a little better and longer moving forward to address one of these issues. Luckily the sugar and salt did the trick and I was able to use the mind over matter tactic and get moving again. I made it to VA 42 and was dreading the final climb of the day. It was snowing and waiting at the top of the climb were some slick slabs I would have to walk for at least a mile. I began the slog up Bruisers Knob and took many more breaks than would normally be the case over the few miles to the top. Today was just a day I didn’t feel it. Once at the top I walked the spine of the mountain range and wished it was clear so I could see the views on all sides that I was sure were amazing. I walked about 30 minutes after dark and almost missed the shelter I was going to stay at due to the snow. That would have either been a ten mile mistake or a cold night of snow camping. Hopefully summer weather comes back soon
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