Bigger Miles: Day 19

This morning we attempted an 18 mile day. This was the longest stretch to do in one day yet for us. Fortunately, the day started out easy and down hill. We said goodbye to Mollies Ridge and trudged out into the light dusting of snow that now covered the ground. How was it colder now than when we started back in March? The answer to this was a two part answer. #1 There was a polar vortex occurring at this time and #2 was the fact that we were at our highest elevation yet. When you added the two factors together, the snow was unfortunately what you got. Although to Danny and I the snow was nothing special, to Kyle and Kory this was the winter wonderland they had dreamed of. Apparently they don’t get much snow in Florida. Who knew? The miles felt longer and longer each time we ticked another one off of our long trek. I staggered along with about 6 miles left around 4pm in front of the rest of the group. I tended to have a slower pace and wanted a little head start before they caught up. As I turned a bend, a louder than normal rustle sounded to my right. I froze and peered up the hill. To my delight there were three wild pigs staring back at me. At first I thought the largest one was a bear, but as a voice sounded behind me the pigs snorted all ran off into the woods. Danny turned the corner and yelled again. “Hey! I finally caught you...watcha staring at?” Pigs. By the 17th mile we were a bit delirious. For some strange reason I had caught my 18th wind of the day and I pushed hard up the final hill not stopping for anything. All that I could think was where is this damn shelter????? For once I was actually the only hiker in our tramily to have energy and I arrived first. Screaming with joy, I danced a happy dance to myself. The longest mileage yet in one day AND tomorrow we hit Clingman’s Dome and Newfound Gap which were where we would hitch into town to Zero and devour pizza. We all set our alarms for 5:30Am the next morning. Although we only had 12 miles to the gap, we wanted as much time in town as possible. The more time in town, the more meals we got to eat.