Day 18

Day 18: 24 miles

The day was off to a good start catching the sunrise on the Roan Highlands. The sky looked unreal this morning (the first video might be the best one I’ve ever taken). Finally there were tracks to follow from other people. So instead of wading through waist deep snow I could just step on the previous person’s foot holes and move a little faster.

Said goodbye to North Carolina for the last time. For a while now I’ve been hopping back and forth, and walking on the state borders, between North Carolina and Tennessee. Now I’ve just got a little chunk of Tennessee left and then onto Virginia!

Since I moved slower than expected the last few days, all I had to eat for the first 15 miles of the day was a honey bun and 3 packets of tuna😷. When I finally got to my food resupply I made up for the recent shortage on food. At this point I was leaning towards calling it a day and staying at a hostel since there’s another winter storm tonight. Then I got a text from a friend (shoutout Ben) who saw yesterday’s post and reminded me that all this current hardship is to earn the big miles on nice summer days. After chewing on this for a bit I decided that the rest of the AT will be considered “Earn It” season for me. Hopefully this campaign will motivate me a little more. It at least motivated me to push 9 more miles today after my resupply.

After I got my food I headed back out and was planning on making it to camp before the snow started. But it started early and it was rolling heavy. Probably got an inch just in the time I was walking and it’s supposed to continue overnight.

I apologize to the LNT gods but somehow I lost my clean water bottle. When I was at the store today I bought a new one but I left it there. Personal oof

Broke my first trekking pole of the trip🙃

I have been having some ankle pain lately even though I didn’t roll it or anything. Hoping that subsides like my hip pain did.

Song of the day: Low life-Future