I m
anaged 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 .
