It was very cold at camp last night, dropping below freezing. I woke up several times during the night feeling cold but managed to fall back to sleep quickly each time. It was our intent to leave camp at 7:30 this morning but at 7:45 am the crew still wasn’t ready so I told them I was heading out as I was so cold just standing around waiting and I wanted to get moving so that I could warm up. Our goal was a shelter a little over 13 miles away. Once I got started it was such a beautiful morning- blue sky, sun, cool weather – perfect hiking conditions. I took my first break at 11:00 am and had already traveled 8 miles and I made it to our shelter location (13.2 miles) before 1:00 pm where I had lunch. Because it was so early in the day I sent a message to our team indicating that I was going to press on to the next shelter which was an additional 7 miles away. The final 7 miles were a bit harder as the weather had warmed up quite a bit and my legs were in “overtime” (as my prior longest hikes were just over 13 miles). All in all my legs felt strong even though it was another day of either going uphill or downhill. One reason I felt comfortable pressing on is that our crew has planned to stay at Standing Bear Hostel tomorrow, as it is somewhat of a tradition for thru hikers and it has a bit of an eclectic atmosphere I think. As this hostel is now less than 6 miles from where I stopped tonight, I can give my legs a rest tomorrow afternoon. The rest of the crew will catch up with me at the hostel as they stopped at the shelter we had originally planned to stop at tonight. We will resume our hike on Thursday morning. While our daily hikes are never a competition, I will put a check in the “win” column for the senior team member today as I am the first one to crack a 20 mile day. However, I am wise and experienced enough to know that the (much) younger and stronger legs of my teammates will likely leave me in the dust in the not-too-distant future.

The reward for my efforts today is a shelter site with the worst tent locations yet. I am literally camped next to a steep drop off and in the direction where the sign at camp says “Toilet Area”. A young lady just walked past my tent with toilet paper in hand a few minutes ago and there is some toilet paper on the ground less than 10 feet from my tent. Modesty on the trail is definitely lacking but it is out of necessity rather than preference.

Once again, very weak cell signal and I cannot download pics. Hopefully at the hostel tomorrow I will be able to catch up. My apologies.