Make it count: Day # 39

Monday, April 20 - Day #39 - AT Hike

Miles Hiked Today - 14.7
Total Miles Hiked on AT - 469.5/2,193 (21.41%)

Atkins - Relax Inn (445.7) to Knot Maul Branch Shelter (460.4) - camp at Knot Maul Branch Shelter

Total ascent - 3,581’
Total descent - 3,097’

Total States Completed - 1/14

** Rain Day

Coming to you live from the Knot Maul Branch Shelter - in my tent. A little later than normal - it’s about 8:45pm. There’s 10 of us staying here tonight. WOW!! I haven’t seen this many people in weeks at a shelter. Always, Sunny, and Owl Cat (and dog) are the only 3 people I knew before. Besides us 4 - there’s another group of 4 (only caught the names of Orange & Grute) and then 2 singles - Zebra & then didn’t get the name of the other guy. I played it pretty low key and just hung out around the fire a bit. Listening - learning. I can pick up on a lot of things just by listening to the dynamics of a group for a couple hours. Very interesting for me.

Today is 4/20 - big in the marijuana world. Lots of celebrating going on with several of these folks tonight. One guy woke up at 4:20am this morning to smoke as a kick-off to the celebration. I learned 4/20 came from a group of 4 people at Cal-Berkeley — they would meet at 4:20pm to smoke. This is when their schedules matched. Supposedly- it was all about the time - not the date. I have no idea if this is correct - but the guy that told me said: “Dude - if you want to know anything about the history of stoners - I got you man”. I let him know I appreciate having a go-to expert on the subject. If you can’t tell - I’m not a marijuana guy - and I’m not really educated so much on the subject (although I’ve been asked a million times about my take on “weed” because I live in Colorado). People would call at my last job: “Where you from man”. My reply: “Colorado”. Their general response: “Man - I bet it’s great out there with non-stop weed”. It’s funny how many folks automatically assume I must smoke weed simply because I live in Colorado. The conversation above happened at least 100 times at my last job. I’ve got nothing at all against it or people who do it (I got friends who do it) - I just don’t partake in it myself.

So - I only started this morning around 9:45am. It was raining most of the night and continued to rain this morning. It was so difficult to push myself out the door. Luckily - the rain just about stopped by the time I left. The trail was nasty for a couple hours - but the weather improved all day. It turned out to be a great hiking day with temps in the mid 50’s.

My feet hung tough today - the pain is ever-present in my heels —- but, there’s worse things going on in the world then my foot pain. So I just need to “Suck it up buttercup”. I ordered the Superfeet insoles for delivery to my hotel in Pearisburg. I iced them after the hike and have them elevated now. After the first 5 minutes of walking in the morning, at the end of the day, or after any breaks - the pain is tolerable. The first 5 minutes - any 90+ year old in most nursing homes could leave me in the dust.

Wish me luck tomorrow morning. There is supposedly a bridge out a couple miles ahead. We’ve been warned that we need to “forge the creek”. Not so sure what this will entail - but I got backup at this camp. Per the movie - A Few Good Men - when Demi Moore pulled Tom Cruise aside before going into the last big courtroom seen with Jack Nicholson - She said: “When you’re in there today, if you don’t think you can get him - don’t go for it. You could get into a lot of trouble”. (I have no internet - but it’s close to this). I mention this because - once I see what I’m up against tomorrow - if I don’t think I can make it across safely - I’ll wait for the others to come for additional support. (I’ll likely be one of the first out of camp). All good - I also read up on how to properly “forge a river”. (There’s actually a section on my Guthook app that goes over this)

Tomorrow will bring more rain - starting around 5-6am. It could be a rough tent tear-down and start to the day. The temps are likely to be mid 40’s in the am — so much warmer than some of my past rain experiences. I’m hoping for a pretty big day - my body just needs to hang in there

Good night from “an area really close to Bristol, TN” - where one of the most popular NASCAR races takes place. I know a few of my buddies have gone to this race a number of times. Good on you mates! Today is also Patriots Day in Boston - I wonder how long it’s been that the Boston Marathon was not run on Patriots Day?

**11am Tuesday - made it over the creek. All good!!