Day thirty-eight

Mud skiing is a sport you don’t hear about often. It’s a lot like snow skiing… kinda. Anyway, you have the poles. It doesn’t take a lot of mud and falling hurts more. You don’t go really far, but you do go fast. This day held a little bit of everything. Rangely and I left Hogback Ridge Shelter about 8 a.m. It got balmy and kind of warm. Lyle said there were going to be thunder storms but it didn’t start off that way. The trail went up and down and at one point it started to sprinkle. We had put our pack covers on in an effort to ward off thunderstorms. It worked yesterday. I went through Sam’s Gap which is on I-26 and met a man and woman and their two grandsons. The boys, Stonewall & JP, were hiking on to Erwin where their grandparents live. Things got exciting after that. It seemed like all I did was climb and then I found a big field with beautiful views. At one point it started storming and blowing so I put on my rain jacket. Then it got hot so I took it off. I was in the wide open area where I couldn’t see 50 feet around me because of the fog, and the wind was blowing and little birds with a white tail feather were hopping ahead of me on the trail.

I had to climb up this hill and I was cold and wet and I am STILL cold and damp. I got to Bald Mountain Shelter around 4:30 p.m. which means I’m doing better than a mile an hour. 
I feel like such a slug. A guy by the name of Sully came in last night. He is doing 20 miles a day. He and Rangley talked about running and marathons. He's planning on doing a half Iron Man in the Fall. Rangely talked about hiking in the Grand Tetons and starting when she was a little girl. I feel like such a slug. 
The birds this morning are Eastern Towhee.