I woke up a little sore and out of sorts this morning. I stayed in a shelter last night with 4 other people. It rained all night long, a steady or hard downpour the entire night. At least I wasn’t cold. My top quilt is working out beautifully and I was very cozy. However the rain/fog/cold (50 degrees), made a morning run to the privy miserable. I decided I did not want to hike in cold weather again today It is my least favorite weather under any circumstances. Plus my Achilles tendon was hurting and I was sore and I just didn’t want to be wet, cold, and stinky today.

So I decided I would hike 2 miles to the road and get a ride to a hotel. However I was in no hurry to get started out into the rain. So I went back to sleep and then just hung around the shelter until about 11am. But when I got to the road, J felt pretty good and I knew if I went to a hotel on only my third day, I might give up. So I decided to hike to the next road and if I still wanted a hotel, I would get one. I ended up crossing 6 paved roads today (very unusual). Each one of them a temptation to call it quits even if just for a day or two.

I’m proud to say I crossed all 6 roads and kept going. I’m glad I did because it ended up being a great day. I had a picnic at Washington Monument State Park and the sun came out for about 20 minutes and warmed me up. I also got to experience the forest in a new and amazing way.

Every so often when I am hiking, I try to stop and stand still and look around. I try to consciously appreciate that there is a world of natural beauty that is available for us to visit. I try to pay attention to how it smells. How it sounds and how it feels to be in the middle of nature. Today I was standing in the middle of the forest. I could not hear any sounds of civilization. No road noise. No airplanes overhead. No cellphones or people talking. All I could hear were the buzzing of insects. Chirping birds and the sound of raindrops falling through the leaves. It was so peaceful. Then an amazing thing happened. A thick fog rolled through the forest. I could see it wrapping around each tree and log on the forest floor. It was almost like it was alive. It rolled through so quickly. It caught me by surprise and then I didn’t want to move because I couldn’t see more than 2 or 3 feet in front of me. The whole forest got even quieter and I just stood there. It took about 2 or 3 minutes and then it blew away as quickly as it blew in.

It made me very grateful I didn’t take the easy way out and get a hotel. It was an amazing experience and I’m so glad I didn’t miss it!

No pics today because I didn’t think to take any.