Date: 2022-04-14
To: View Entry
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: overcast clouds

It¢s been a great day. A lot of ups and downs. Some of the climbs were just brutal. And then the downs were a killer on the knees. And it has been so worth it to do another 15 miler day. It rained in the early hours of today. I stayed dry but I still didn¢t sleep well. There were no level spots for tents last night so I was constantly sliding down and sideways off my air mat. I was successful at peeing from my tent because I refused to get up in the rain at 4am. Which was a challenge but I made it work. After that I realized I could use my pack to stuff under the lower half of my air mat and then it created a little cocoon that held me in place. I will keep that in the back of my mind for later.>span class="s1">Around noon I topped out on a mountain that was covered in small trees and rocks that jutted straight up out of the ground. The top of the mountain was maybe 10 feet wide and nearly 30 feet long. I had to climb over the rocks and wind my way through the trees. It was just so cool to finally find a rock tall enough to scramble on top and see above the short trees and get a view. The peak was maybe 4000 feet. It was just such a great view. The down after that I thought I was going to fall so many times. The rocks continued to jut out in the way. There was a section of the trail that you balanced in between these big rocks and prayed you didn¢t slip because there was no where to go if you did except forward down the mountain. Some how the danger makes the climbs and descents so much more worth it. Over the past couple of days I have literally gone up and over mountain edges that I could have died from if I had fallen. I have balanced on rocks that shook when I stepped on them and threatened to send me head first down a rock field. I have no doubt that the people praying for me are protecting me. The danger also pushes me into my state of Flow. Flow theory is when the skill you have and the risk an activity poses meet along the 45 on an X Y graph. If the skill you have is so much more than the risk then you can be bored. If the opposite is true then you run the risk of seriously hurting yourself. But when they meet you have the skill to do exactly what is required to succeed. When this happens you can enter a state of ¢Flow¢ where time seems to pass both slow and fast. It¢s an incredible feeling. There is nothing like it. You can hit Flow doing almost anything. So finding it while hiking has been so amazing.I made it to Cable Gap Shelter just before 3pm. So I covered the the 15.4 miles in 7 hours. I was moving good today. I considered going the next 5 miles on to Fontana Dam. But after I went to the bathroom and ate a snack I knew I wasn¢t going further. I could have made it though. So I am feeling really good. I am considering attempting the Smokies challenge. Which is to cover the 75 miles of the Smokies in 4 days. So that will be 20ish miles day. I may not. But I could. It¢s just a thought but would be cool to say I did it. I¢m not going to stress about it. I will do what my body feels like doing at the time.It¢s only my crew staying in the shelter tonight. There are apparently an infestation of mice in this shelter. They don¢t bother me. So bring it on. Here is to hoping I don¢t wake up to a mouse on my face.While I am laying down writing this journal entry a man known as the Mailman showed up with a cooler pack full of beer, some fruit, and some salami and cheese. It was a real treat for Trail Magic.