Date: 2014-04-18
From: Double Spring Gap Shelter

To: Mollies Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 20.8
Weather: light rain

Should have done a better job pitching my tent. Still only using 2 out of 7 stakes but, last night I did the laziest set up ever. So my tent was flapping in the wind. My sleep was fine except for waking up a few times to a cracking whip above my head. Sometimes these winds get fierce. In the morning I had a chat with a very nice and young married couple. We talked about meditation, ayahuasca, self (mental) preparations, and developing your own personal life philosophy. Reaffirmed my personal self prescribed rite of passage I'm currently embarked on.The rest of the day proceeded kick my ass though. This was the first day on the trail where I felt like I had no energy. Managed to find a bunch of things about the hike that were thoroughly enjoyable but I wasn't helping myself by not eating enough. Made the mistake of skipping breakfast because I didn't want to trek far off trail to get water. Figured I would just fill up on water at the next shelter and cook there. That didn't happen because I forget why. Maybe because the water source there was also a quarter mile downhill and I rationalized that I shouldn't get comfortable and stop for too long. Well water and shelters are not nearly as abundant in the Smokies as it was earlier on the trail. Because of that, no actual meal was made until I arrived at my third shelter of the day around a reasonable hiker dinner time. That's where I doubled up on dinner and had a total of 7 servings with an insane amount of sodium. Made Spanish rice supplemented with mashed potatoes and tossed all of that together with a Mountain House meal (Chili Mac and beans). Made everyone jealous with the enormity/deliciousness of my feast.Of course I had to sit around and BS for a bit to digest before carrying on for some night hiking. This was where I found Animal, the hiker trail named Animal. Just as someone who signed my guestbook had advised. We had a conversation through a tarp since he was already set in his sleeping bag and was not going to get up. I respect that, haha. Also talked to a man named Feral? Told me about shit luck; some girl went out for a nighttime number 2, stepped in human number 2's, and reached for a handful of leaves to wipe it off only to grab more number 2's.More hiker talk commenced and I set off for my final destination of the day. Shortly after getting back on the trail I started feeling low energy again. After a self physical assessment, I realized it wasn't the lack of food, it wasn't lack of water, and it wasn't the toughness of the Smoky Mountains. Yes, they are biologically sound explanations/reasons why I had a lack of energy. However, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler raised their middle fingers to the logic of science when they decided to become the first people to summit Mt Everest without the supplemental use of oxygen. Sure they were dragging their own meatbags of flesh inch by inch every 15 minutes as they continually passed out in intervals near the very top of the mountain. But doctors straight up told them it was impossible because they would literally die without supplemental oxygen at those elevations. They didn't. Therefore, they are legends.I am not a legend but, I can still say science dammit and charge forward. This is a mental feat and I took a moment to get my head into it. I let myself be lazy. This was about being psyched on the present moment and not being distracted by non beneficial thinking. Getting my head right was all that I needed. So I charged forward with a fight mentality. Next thing you know, I'm flying up hills.Aww yeah.