Thursday, August 13 18.8 mi
AT 1541.5 Shaker Campsite → AT 1560.3 October Mountain Shelter
Weather: Warm, sunny/overcast
Trail Conditions: First half of day relatively smooth, second half rocky/rooty
My Condition: Liquid poops x3 overnight (coconut butter, cheese, pepperoni, fruit snacks, oreos, and bars will do that to ya) but otherwise felt great today!!
Met SOBO thru hiker Poison last night. He wanted to talk gear, show off his 7 pound base weight, tell us how easy the Whites were, tell us how he did 20+ mile days through that stretch, asked me for my podcast recommendation and said the show I suggested was too preachy for his tastes, told me how I shouldn’t be using Aquamira for my water, complimented me on my headlamp’s use of cord webbing instead of the strap it came with...all relatively unprompted. If we’d have wanted to know we’d have asked, but we didn’t. He was a lot to handle, but hey, he’s headed the opposite direction! Another hiker also showed up with a bike. He rolls it along as he hikes so he can use it for trips to town at roads. He also said he’s headed eastbound when we asked which way he’s headed. Definitely some quirky encounters tonight. Bad day today in terms of mosquitos around so many of the pools of water.
Post Trail Analysis
Coconut butter – what a tumultuous relationship we’d have. You’re such a great source of delicious calories...but you absolutely destroy my bowels. My trail diet already required an iron stomach, but this one item sent me over the edge every single time I brought it along. During the journey, my trail family and I would receive an incredible amount of unsolicited advice. More than 1500 miles into the journey (granted, with some of the toughest trail yet to go), I’d wager we had a good idea of what we were doing by this point. You hear the words “Hike your own hike” quite frequently when you delve into the culture of the trail, and the phrase takes on a different meaning to different people. To me, part of the ethos of this philosophy involves limiting the unsolicited advice and opinion you put into the world and push upon others. I think veterans can learn from rookies and vice versa, and I think even the most knowledgeable among us has the capacity to continue learning and growing, but part of the beauty in the journey resides in the figuring it out.
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