Day 48

Day 48: 23 miles

The vibes were up today, just not at the beginning. I slept in a little bit to wait for it to stop raining. After walking for about a mile and a half, I realized I left my glove liners back at camp. After contemplating how much monetary value I put on walking back 1.5 miles, I yelled out of frustration and went back for them.

After this less than ideal start to the day, it was great. The trail was pretty easy, most of the snow was melted and it was relatively flat.

I cruised the 12 miles into boiling springs where I met my shuttle driver that drove me to wind gap, which is roughly 155 miles of trail, since I did that section when my start in Georgia got delayed a week. I put links to that week’s posts on my story if you want to go back and read about most of my time in Pennsylvania.

After jumping up on the trail it was definitely in different condition. There was much more snow present. But hopefully with upcoming sunny days the trail can clear up.

I’ve noticed lately that I think it was extremely beneficial for me to do the mid state trail in December. It prepared me for the worst. It started getting dark at 4:30 so I became accustomed to that and now the days seem long. And it was rockier than the Pennsylvania section of the Appalachian trail. This got me ready to expect bad terrain. It did a good job of building up my expectations of difficulty and set me up to be pleasantly surprised on this trip.

It supposed to be 16 degrees tonight with winds of 20-30mph and gusts of 50. I’m not sure what that wind chill will be but time to batton down the hatches.

I have a short day tomorrow into Delaware water gap then I’ll be staying with a friend of a friend of a friend for a night. I can’t turn down a free night indoors and it will be good to prepare for upcoming trail I really know nothing about. Tomorrow will be the first morning of the trip I don’t set an alarm. Freedom

Song of the day: Better Not-Louis the child

See January 7 Days hiking AT in Pennsylvania