A lot has happened in the past 36 hours since I left Siler Bald Shelter. I'll start with the details.
Yesterday I had my longest mileage yet. I wasn't planning on it, but a few factors made it so. At the start of the day, I considered Burningtown Gap a good goal for the day. It was only about 4200 ft, and would have been a 10.2 mile day. Then, throughout the day i heard over and over about the rain that was coming tomorrow. So when I got to Burningtown, and the sun was still out, I thought shoot, why not do some more miles while its nice out, then take it easy tomorrow in the rain. I almost stopped at Cold Spring shelter, what would have been a 11.6 mile day, but convinced myself no, it was too high at almost 5000 feet. It'll be cold up here. Besides, I just stayed at a shelter and despite the camaraderie of other hikers, its just not a good night's sleep. So it was on to Tellico Gap, a 15.2 mile day. But at Tellico, it was so steep that I couldn't find any place to camp! In the end, I set up camp at about 6:30, just south of Wesser Bald. A 16 mile day!
And that's the story of my first 15-er. 15 miles will actually be about my average for the entire hike, which is hard to fathom because I was dog tired at the end of yesterday. Today I'll be headed through Nantahala Gorge, and tonight looks to be cold, perhaps into single digits at elevation!
-Ted
12:38pm 3/27/2015
12:38pm 3/27/2015
Now for the real stuff. I had a kind of realization as I came down Wesser Bald today. It was similar to back in July, when I first realized that the AT was a possibility. And it all started with the Fleet Foxes. I had a song of theirs, Someone You'd Admire, stuck in my head. It was a song that I put on a cd for my fellow seniors back in high school. Some of the lyrics are "I walk with others in me yearning to get out, Claw at my skin and gnash their teeth and shout...God only knows which one I'll become." Then I thought back to high school, and how I could have never, ever guessed that in three years hiking the AT is what I'd be doing with my life. And then, in that moment, I realized that this is what I'd become! I was hiking the AT. I will be hiking the AT for the forseeable future. And darn it, I'm going to do my best to finish the AT. In the end, it was all a very transcendent experience. So anyway, it used to be that when I came across another hiker and the question came up "Are you thru-hiking?" I would say "That's the plan" or "I hope so" or something along those lines. Now, I think I have the guts to say a solid "YES!"
-Ted
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