Day 9 – One State Down, 13 Original Colonies To Go!

Actually that’s not historically accurate but there are 13 states left on the AT. That’s right, I officially crossed over into North Carolina and today what the kids would call a “doozie” 11.1 miles and definitely the steepest climb of the trail yet. From the moment you cross the border there is roughly a 19% grade up for the next 0.5 miles. Welcome to North Carolina right?!

Today started pretty leisurely. I slept in until almost 9:30 meaning I probably got 10 hours of sleep last night. Using ear plugs at night has been a game changer. Once I was awake I packed up relatively quickly and ate a quick breakfast before heading to the trail across the street. I cross the street to find some of the best trail magic I’ve seen thus far. Burgers, hot dogs, fresh fruit, chips, cookies, etc. and of course I’ve just eaten already.  But that didn’t stop me, I still had a burger patty and chips and fruit before heading out. After all, I’m a growing boy.

The plan was to get to Muskrat Creek Shelter 11.1 miles away. That plan was executed to near perfection. We had some minor blister problems on my arches. I attribute that to an aggressive pace uphill to start the day. I switched to trail runners around the halfway mark for the day.

Today featured some of the highest elevations on trail so far nearing 5000 ft. Along with the elevation came incredible views of the valley below. The views coinciding with the physical effort required to get there made them all the more special and worthwhile.

Random thoughts: I used to be on the crew team in college and the typical rowing race is 2000 meters. I oftentimes break distances up and compare them to rowing a 2k. At the 1000m mark today I did a power-10 and settled back into my pace. The final 500m of the day was a battle and I had our school chant going in my head.

U-C-D, Go Aggs (Aggies), Fight Fight Fight!

I was probably at my peak of physical endurance capacity during that time if my life. It will be interesting to see if this endeavor rivals that time.

I arrived at camp around 5:30PM sore all over but feeling accomplished. I got to witness a breathtaking sunset as well.  We had another camp fire and I met some new faces and ran into some familiar ones as well.

At this time I’ve completed about 3.6% of the AT. In comparison, if this was a 2K rowing race, we would be 72 meters in and still executing our start sequence to get up to speed. That analogy sounds about right.

Thanks for listening and stow away for Day 10 on the Appalachian Trail.