Taking the 4th Zero Day of the CYTC

This morning I slept in until around 8am and still felt exhausted. I joked about taking the day off, and within minutes it was decided. We had two full pizzas leftover from last night and were both feeling lazy. It sounded like the perfect time and place to take a zero day!

Once we figured that out I just rolled over and laid for a while longer. Then eventually made coffee and heated up some pizza for breakfast. I want to eat as many calories today as humanly possible. Besides getting some writing and video work done, eating is my only goal.

Then I laid in bed and got going on my blogging and video work. I also had a couple sponsored videos to make so I started on that. And my weekly vlog comes out on YouTube every Thursday, so I edited that and got it ready to post in a couple days. If you’d like to watch any of my daily shorts of weekly vlogs, my Instagram and YouTube accounts are @madisonblagden. I have 9 weekly vlogs up as of now, as well as some gear videos.

The sign at the Broken Fiddle Hostel.

I got a bunch of stuff done and then was just laying around. We wanted to just relax and watch a movie. But made the smart call to at least go to the post office first. I gathered up a small bag of things to send home. I’m currently carrying resistance band for exercises. But haven’t used it more than once or twice. My shoulder bothered me before the trail, but hadn’t bothered me once since the first day!

Downtown Damascus.

I also am carrying two bullet casings, a tiny plastic dinosaur, a $1 bill folded into a ring, a hummingbird key chain, my Florida trail tag, some stickers, and some other odds and ends. I got a new claw clip so I wanted to mail my old one home too. As well as my garmin watch. Which has been acting up all year long and dies every other day randomly. Even when it’s fully charged. At this point it doesn’t even work well enough to use it to tell time! Let alone anything else. So I’m just mailing it home and will hopefully get a new watch in the next few weeks. We’ll see.

All the random goodies I’m mailing home!

After we went to the post office we headed back to the hostel. Then resumed our lounging! I did a bit more work and got my YouTube video completely done. That takes a little while to edit because the videos are anywhere from 20-30 minutes long, and I add some voiceover potions to them. But it was easy enough I got everything done pretty quickly. I’m never “completely done”, but as long as I’m working on something most days I’m doing alright.

Damascus Outfitters.

The only other time we left the hostel was for an ice cream run. Dairy King was open until 6pm so we got over there before it closed. I got a fudge cake sundae which was delicious! And couldn’t resist also getting a milk shake to wash it down with. Nothing like eating and drinking ice cream simultaneously!

Pizza and lemonade for lunch!

I weighed myself at the hostel and am definitely down in weight. Typically on thru hikes I notice myself getting skinny. But because of increased muscle weight I typically don’t change weight on a scale. This is the first time I’ve ever weighed myself and noticed an actual difference. Though I will say, I don’t frequently weigh myself on any thru hike I’ve ever done. Only when a scale is available, which it rarely is. But I’ve clearly lost a bit of weight, so now it’s time to recognize that and make more of an effort to stuff my face.

You have to realize that we’ve gone 1,800 miles, so almost the entire length of most longer thru hikes. By the end of a big hike it’s pretty normal to have lost weight. But doing an even longer hike like this requires balance. When you notice weight going down it just is a reminder to eat more and try harder to force down calories. On the 5,600 mile ECT in 2023 I had many phases of weight. I would thin out alot and then over another month I would put on 5+ pounds. Then lose weight again in the following month. It doesn’t always go in one direction, if you’re willing to try hard to deter the weight loss.

A couple random goodies that I sent home.

Around this time another hiker got into the hostel named Candy Man. We ran into him before Station 19E and I was surprised to see him! He’s the first hiker we’ve seen more than once this year. Except for one or two that had flipped up or were slack packing. He got in around 4pm and was going to be staying in the bunks as well.

After our ice cream excursion we returned to lounge some more. We sat in the reclining B chairs in the living room and put on Remember the Titans. An epic movie. While we watched it I multitasked and got some video stuff done. I also drank the rest of my milkshake and just got comfortable. Over the course of the night I consumed as much more as I could. I was full for a while but still managed to put down pizza and chocolate milk.

My garmin solar instinct watch keeps dying, so I’m just over carrying it around.

Then I wrapped up the last bit of writing and video work that I wanted to get done. Once all that was done I finally allowed myself to roll over and call it a night. I’m sure we’ll be having a relatively early start tomorrow morning. It will be nice to be back in our routine continuing north! And based on some messages that I’ve gotten this past week, I have a feeling this is going to be a very magical section. There appears to be some trail magic in our future over the next hundred or so miles.

If you enjoyed this blog and would like to support my hike by buying me a soda or a snack along the way, there is a “Tip the Author” button below! It links directly to my Venmo. Any and all support is incredibly appreciated!