Even waking up I just knew it was going to be a good day. I felt good, well rested and I was ready to start pounding trail. I had 67 miles to get to my next town stop and I wanted to try to make it in a day and a half if my body was feeling up to it. The day started pleasant and heated up very quickly. At 10 I passed Brown mountain creek and decided to give the frigid water a tray. My legs were frozen instantly from the snowmelt, but it was refreshing nonetheless. Shortly after this shock of ice water I began the steep climb up Bald Knob. In places it was so steep my heals didn’t even touch the ground on each step. It was an instant calf workout and another step in my body sculpting process. I ran out of water well before the top and slowed drastically on the climbing. Luckily I met some men doing trail maintenance and I took it as an excuse to stop and thank them for their work. I try to make a point to give all the volunteers around every long trail a thank you at the very least because without them it would be much harder to do big miles since hurdling a log every five minutes would not only slow me down but kill my confidence after the first fall. After the peak of bald mountain my parched mouth prayed for water so I took drastic measures. Against my usual style I went over half a mile off the trail towards a spring to fend off dehydration. It was well worth it. The rest of the day was never flat. Either up or down but the trail never settled. That coupled with a 75 degree day had me panting like an out of shape hiker. I think I am just not in summer hiking shape. Put me in -15 degree weather with snow and that is where I shine right now. This hot weather will take some getting used to. I closed out the day hard and did a bit of night hiking to reach my biggest day of the trip to day: 44 miles. This means I should only have an easy 24 miler to accomplish before 5pm in order to get my resupply package from town. Another box with the same bland dehydrated food. But I can’t say too much because that bland food carried me 44 miles today.
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