Day 31: Sick.

6.4 miles: Jerry Cabin Shelter to Flint Mountain Shelter

Today was my hardest and lowest day on the trail. It turns out last night when I felt sick, I was actually sick. Some sort of stomach bug most likely. I could only eat about half a meal this morning, that was it, all day. Comparatively on a normal day with hiker hunger I have 2 meals for breakfast, 2 for lunch, and 2 or 3 for dinner, and I snack all day! This isn't a good sign. I also have really bad diarrhea (TMI, I know!). Just the smell of food makes me nauseous. I could've gotten this from several things but it's hard to be sure. It could've been a bad water source and my filter didn't work properly, or bad hygiene, or just from another hiker..

So I stayed in the shelter until one in the afternoon and watched it rain literally non stop all day. After thinking that maybe the rain is slowing (it wasn't) I headed out to at least get to the next shelter. During my packing up process my backpack tore:

Then after a few miles of hard uphill I came to a section of trail that was definitely new. The maintainers must have just rerouted this section. This means a lot of fresh dirt and mud! And combined with a few days of relentless rain it creates the perfect definition of a slog. On top of that I just switched to my trail runners (see post: Hot Springs, NC) which apparently become very slippery when there is a lot of mud. I must have fallen in the mud at least six times.

When I finally got near the shelter the only thing keeping me going was thinking of a nice dry place in the shelter. I was convinced I'd get one since I was stopping so early and everyone else was moving on either 3 miles to the hostel or 6 to the next shelter. When I arrived everyone in the shelter from the night before had zeroed in the shelter all day to avoid the rain and were staying again that night. After that I just sat at the bench by the shelter and stared at the ground for probably an hour. I worked up some energy and set up my wet tent. I wiped down the floor with my pack towel, blew up my sleeping pad, and laid out my sleeping bag. I finished all this right when my body started going very cold so I hopped in my sleeping bag and fell right asleep. It was a very hard day, but I managed to find the hardest thing on the trail to find: a flat spot. A flat spot to sleep on greatly improves how well you sleep on the trail and I sure needed it. It's not all gear but also a little know-how sometimes.

When I woke again I turned my phone on. My dad, mom, brother, and his girlfriend were coming up to vacation for my dad's 50th birthday. So I had to let them know how my progress towards Erwin, TN was going. When I turned my phone on I got a message from Tric saying her and Jersey Girl were going to try and catch me tomorrow! This lifted my spirits greatly! I went to sleep happy to know I'd see me friends again soon. 

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