It was still raining when I got up this morning. I didn’t feel like rushing but when I peered out from under my rain fly I saw that baby talk had already left and rocket was almost done packing up. I had to get moving. 

I found out the other day during my accidental zero that I’ve lost 20 pounds since I’ve been out here. I had been doing well with not losing weight but the recent big days must have gotten me. In the real world, losing a bunch of weight is a good thing. But it can be dangerous out here. It leads to weakness and every year tons of people are forced to quit because they’ve lost too much weight. I don’t want to be one of those people. 

With that in mind, I’m trying to eat everything in sight to avoid losing much more. Breakfast, therefore, was 3 packs of oatmeal and a half packet of powdered milk. I followed that up with a lot of chocolate – for good measure. 

I walked most of the day in rain. It kept coming down on me and there was nothing I could do about it. Pretty soon my shirt was soaked, then my shorts, then my shoes. Everything was wet and I knew it wouldn’t dry. 

But even with wet shoes, I didn’t want to fully submerge them. So when I saw that we had to cross a “flooded field due to beaver activity,” I wasn’t sure how it would work. I was more concerned, however, when I read a few comments in the app that mentioned the snakes in the flooded field. Ground snakes are bad. Water snakes are even worse. Luckily as I walked through, there were enough downed logs and rocks that I could hop from one submerged item to the next to avoid sinking into the mud or getting eaten by snakes. 

Soon after the submerged field, rocksylvania began. Parts of the trail were strewn with boulders, other parts were covered with sharp rocks. But everywhere there was slick rock that was waiting to be slipped on. I let out a few curses as I stepped funny in places or kicked a rock with my ankle, but over all, it wasn’t as bad as I feared. As usual, the fear mongering on the trail had made it out to be worse than it was.

By the time I got to camp I was exhausted. Once again, I felt like I hadn’t eaten enough and so I sat around silently stuffing my face as the other two joked about. The rain came in and without a word I got up. I finished the face stuffing process in my hammock. Now I’m lying here, ready for a good nights sleep. 

Key stats: 

Miles: 28

Elevation gained: 3,600 ft

Mile marker: 1202

Stubbed toes: 347