AT Adventures: Day 32, 7-16-07

We woke up totally fine. I guess four wheeler guy wasn’t a marauding redneck in his spare time, for which we were all grateful. However, there was residual muscle fatigue from the day before haunting us. We only did about 16 miles, but it was a brutal 16 miles. Caleb and I started off the day right, with this neat Maple Bulgar dehydrated Enertia Foods thing. 500 calories! It was a beautiful thing. Then we started, and it felt totally brutal. We swung by a recently constructed shelter for lunch (it was great! Triple story, wonderful water source down the way, still smelled of new wood!), and got some water. Then we found the waterfall. There was a waterfall a little way off the trail, and we had to go investigate. So we did. You can to take a little side trail up to where you could get under the actual fall, and C and I did. Naturally. You can’t pass up that kind of opportunity. So we did. And it was cold. Very cold. Take your breath cold. Felt good coming out of it though, and it was totally awesome to get a little bit of a shower. Even if it was just water only. So-Close wandered by, and I went back up to get a picture, because C and I forgot the camera on our first trip. Still cold. Who would have thought? Hampton, TN is coming up, and I’m looking forward to some Ben and Jerry’s and prepping for the 40 Mile Challenge. Also called the Damascus Challenge. These last two days certainly entered doubts into my mind though, because they were brutal, and combined, they were still short a few miles of what we’d have to do to knock out the challenge. However, the terrain on both of those days was harder than we’d face on the day itself. I was already feeling tired about this thing.