Somewhere on the Trail #1.
First of all elevation gain on a steep incline is no joke. It is brutal even so in the rain. The Approach Trail (8.8 miles) has 1,982 feet of elevation gain period. There is few spots where it drops somewhere 5-20 feet but gain that and plus some back and finish the day with 62 foot decent down to the first shelter that I stayed at. It was also brutal because it was raining and I was mentally going down hill and turning into a pumpkin before I was at the top. And that set me up and having nights down in the low 20’s to having quite mentally bad days where I needed to take 2 zero days, off trail day, in the span of 6 days. The first full day on the trail I stayed warm by just walking.
Met and talked to people who where locals or thru hikers like me. Was little jealous that the hikers either where faster than me or had a hiking buddy and still motor along and leaving me in the dust. With that said I ended up lost. I needed to turn left but I went straight and was wondering around for several hours before I realized that I was. Thankfully I had an inreach to communicate back home and get back towards the trail. And never made it to the shelter that I wanted to be at. I ended up stealth camping next to a creek about 0.5 miles away from the trail. But the next morning had a surprise for me, besides my sunglasses got broken. Got my first trail magic, group of people have food and drinks for the hikers, and decided to listen to my body and came into town and spend a night there. Thank you to the generous guy from the group to bring me into town.
Got back on the trail and hiked little under 8 mile to the shelter and in the last mile mental doing down and pulled my second zero day there at the shelter. Doing shorter miles has been helping my mental state allot. And when I rolled into The place that I was staying the night, I was got there right when the group that was doing trail magic was slowly packing up for the day, I had gotten some stuff before they started breaking down. Though I had breakfast from them the next morning!!
The juicy stuff: Elevation Gain: 2645. Elevation Loss: 3503. Steps: 118,048 on Trail. Total Miles: 29.4