Day 69

Day 69: 20 miles

So much going on today. Got gronk’s day which I had to honor with my favorite quote of his. And beware the ides of March. See the last picture for live footage from the Roman betrayal.

I woke up in the middle of the night and checked my phone to learn it felt like -18 with the wind chill. Then I started thinking how a big symptom of hypothermia is really wanting to fall asleep so I thought it’d be mighty inconvenient to get hypothermia while trying to fall asleep cause it’d be tough to realize. This thought, along with the cold, kept me up for a while and I didn’t sleep a ton.

Even when I got going with a late start today it still felt like -11. Trying to take down my tent with numb fingers and with 30mph winds was a scene. Eventually I did get into Cheshire and picked up a new trekking pole at the post office. I’m back to full strength.

Then I summited mt greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts. Heading up, there were tracks from 2 people that snowshoed it on a warm day where they were consistently sinking 1-2 feet below. Thank you for your service. So I was able to follow in their deep footsteps, without them the trail would’ve been really tough to follow. I was doing high knees and hop scotch all day while avoiding trees branches from the recent high winds but as long as I wasn’t postholing, it could’ve been worse.

It has been so cold the last 2 days it’s been pretty tough. I have hardly drank any water and eaten very little food. I was putting weight back on when I weighed myself on my rest day but that might be fading with the amount of calories I’ve eaten lately. But there’s always better times around the corner. It’s supposed to start to warm up tomorrow. Although with some rain and sleet coming soon but I’m gonna ignore that for now.

With as cold as it is, I had a person I don’t even know reach out and say they’d be happy to pay for a room for me tonight. People are great.

Crossing into Vermont tomorrow

Song of the day: ultralight beam-Kanye west