40
saturday i met up with six other guys for a man-venture. it was a 40 mile hike from fontana dam to newfound gap over the course of 14 or so hours that would put me over the 200 mile mark on the trail thus far. mat, robbie, and evan i knew from wake, and the others i met the night before our adventure. this particular hike has been happening for several years now and though i had heard about it i had never been a part of it. (un)fortunately for me, my hike up to this point put me right on time to join in this year. i met up with them friday night, threw my pack in the car and prepped a much lighter camelbak for the morning. we hit the trail right at 6am and began what was probably the most difficult physical challenge i have ever faced in my life. this thing made last years marathon seem like a cake-walk. about midway through the ordeal my legs were gone. i was fairly certain that my body was going to give out given my consistant gasping for air and the sweltering mid-day heat beating down on us. i was trying to figure out whether or not i would be able to sleep without my sleeping bag for the night wherever i ended up collapsing, but that was needless worrying because at some point in the early afternoon god showed up. now, it didn’t get easier physically, and it was still 20 more miles of pure willing oneself to just keep moving forward. i won’t lie, i have never been less excited about being alive than recognizing that i had 20 miles to hike with already sore feet, exhausted and depleted muscles, and a generally broken down body, but as we reached the 30’s that feeling of desperation turned into the knowledge that we would all just keep moving, and that eventually we would all finish. a quick change in the weather and a short break brought relief and enough recovery to get there. clouds rolled in for the afternoon, and even a brief cold rain to cool us off, but not so much as to make hiking any harder. the unexpected and perfectly timed change in weather that afternoon is the strongest sign of god’s presence i have seen on the trail in all three weeks so far, and as we jogged in the last hundred yards or so with pretend energy and then collapsed into the parking area, i felt proud of everyone. we had all finished. i also knew that i would never try to hike 40 miles in one day ever again. never. so, for the sake of recovery and rest and seeing some friends, i’m taking a few days off this week in winston salem and then headed back out for the next chunk of the trail at the end of the month.
