MOON PIES AND RATTLESNAKES

I managed  to  start  my  hike  at 730  today ,  not  bad now  that  my  routine  is getting  pretty  efficient.  I  started  my  day with  the  usual  oatmeal  and  washed  it down  with  hot chocolate  and  chased  it with  a  pair  of  pop tarts. A protein  bar keeps me going  until  lunch .  That’s  when  I  break out the salami , cheese  and  peanut  butter  sandwiches .  A cliff bar around  4 keeps  me going  until  I stop. I carry 2 liters of water and generally stop once for a refill at a stream where i filter it. For dinner I boil some sort of noodles, throw in some tuna and garnish it with crackers to elevate it to cassorole status. I brought along moon pies for dessert this week.You would be amazed about how many times i think about that moon pie in my back pack during the hike. Today  I  crossed  the  eastern  continental  divide, I  didn’t  know  we had one and  to be honest  I  really  don’t  know  what  it is .
  I  wanted  to  get to the Audie Murphy  memorial  20 miles  away . I  motivated myself  by thinking  if he could be awarded  3 purple hearts  then I  can make  it up this last hill. A younger guy, Twilight  Zone  was behind  me  but he fell off my pace. I’m as good  once  as I  ever was.  I  need  to  average  20 miles  to get to my resupply  town. It meant  ending  at 7. I   met 2 Virginia  Tech  students  running  up the mountain  to the  monument .  Oh and  I  also  met a rattle  snake  earlier  in  the  day .  It’s  in   the  picture below .