Day 11: Wet, icy and somehow down 100 miles

I had a very rude to wake up this morning.

Look, apparently there are consequences for sleeping on top of a 5,000-foot mountain.

Namely:
You are sleeping directly inside the clouds.

At some point during the night, several clouds must have passed through the camp because when I woke up, everything was soaked.

And I don’t mean «a little damp.»

No.

It felt like one of those church services where the priest walks around throwing holy water at everyone, except instead of a gentle blessing, every gust of wind absolutely blew condensation off the walls of my tent right into my face.

Every few minutes:
SLAP.

Mini storm inside.

Finally, I worked up the courage to check my mat and discovered…

also soaked.

Fantastic!!

So now not only was the outside of my tent wet, but the inside somehow felt wetter.

Honestly, growing up in a cold, rainy climate for most of my life should have prepared me for this kind of misery.

But after living in sunny Key West for two years, he had apparently forgotten one very important fact:

I absolutely hate being cold and wet at the same time.

That combination is lethal to my mood.

I was in such a bad mood that I didn’t even bother to prepare breakfast.

No coffee.
No oats.
No attempt to raise morale.

I just packed up my soaked little life and started walking.

To be fair, he got me out of camp pretty early. I think I was already hiking before 9am, which honestly deserves a round of applause.

Fortunately, the first few kilometers were downhill.

One thing about camping on top of a mountain:
eventually you have to go down.

And after the morning I had just experienced, gravity seemed like the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me.

Once I got moving and finally ate a granola bar, my mood improved dramatically.

It’s amazing what calories can do for the human spirit.

North Carolina also continued to deliver wildflowers. My favorites became these tiny purple flowers that grow on the rocky slopes of the mountains.

The flora? Gorgeous.

The fauna, however, tried to cause me to go into cardiac arrest.

I almost stepped directly on the first snake on the trail.

Luckily it was small, but it blended in so well with the dirt road that I didn’t really see it until the last second.

One wrong move and I would have sent the poor thing to another zip code.

Today also saw a big milestone:
the official 100 mile mark on the Appalachian Trail.

Now, technically, with the approach trail and all the random side quests, I had definitely already walked over 100 miles.

But still.

Three digits felt important.

And even better, the 100 mile point was at the Albert Mountain Fire Tower, which meant:
views.

Unfortunately, it also meant climbing Albert Mountain.

Earlier that day, I texted someone special I had met in Amicalola Falls: Carrie.

We chatted briefly the first day and she told me:

«When you get to North Carolina, text me.»

At that moment, North Carolina felt incredibly far away.

And now, suddenly, he was here.

I told her I would be arriving at Albert Mountain Fire Tower later that night, and she immediately offered to meet me with food.

Real angel behavior once again.

Now, in FarOut there is something called the «Dump Truck Challenge», which is basically seeing how fast you can climb from the base of Albert Mountain to the fire tower.

What no one tells you is that this climb is practically vertical.

Halfway there I really thought I might pass away.

At one point I had to stop and aggressively inhale the Boston honey and cream bun Cardinal had given me the day before just to keep my vision from being obstructed.

Terrible for my time challenge.

Excellent for survival.

Around 6pm, sweaty and completely out of breath, I finally reached the tower.

And there was Carrie waiting for me.

“You did it,” he said.

And honestly?
That affected me more than expected.

Because somehow… really had made.

100 miles.

While you unpack an amazing dinner of:

• chicken thighs






• spinach






• corn bread






• and banana cream pie for dessert

…I told him everything about the trail so far.

The maximums.
The minimums.
The strange moments in between.

And honestly, it felt strange talking to someone who wasn’t actively hiking.

Life on the trail had already begun to become my entire reality.

But Carrie’s appearance reminded me how special this whole experience really is.

Not many people walk 100 miles.

And even fewer people understand what it takes emotionally and physically to get there.

Carrie finally had to return before dark, but not long after, Dan and the Dread Pirate caught up with her.

We all decided to camp near the tower for the night.

No inside the tower, unfortunately, because it was closed.

Honestly, it’s probably for the best because the wind was making that thing shake in a way that seemed slightly worrying.

But the sunset?

Absolutely unreal.

The sun’s rays broke through the clouds like giant hands reaching across the mountains.

And sitting there watching it all happen, exhausted and frozen and somehow incredibly happy…

…finally I understood:

We had traveled 100 miles.

And that felt amazing.