Day Two

I woke up in the middle of my first night shivering, wet and with some knee pain. As the night had gone on water had accumulated along the top and sides of the tent and being the wrestless sleeper that I am rolled into the side of the tent. I rolled back into the middle and tried to zip my sleeping bag up some more.

I woke up several times through out the night and didn't sleep very well. In the morning I ate oatmeal and drank hot chocolate and finished most of my water. I decided to not get more water at this shelter because it is somewhat difficult to get here and I saw lots of water yesterday.

I think I sprained my knee yesterday coming down springer mountain in the rain. It didn't really hurt yesterday but today it hurts a lot. The good news is that as long as I don't walk it doesn't hurt, unfortunetly I need to walk so I'm walking through the pain.

Unfortunetly unlike yesterday there wasn't water everywhere and the only water source was 6 miles and 2 mountains away. The first mountain was Sassafras mountain with an ascent of 625 in 1 mile and Justus mountain an ascent of 425 feet in in .6 miles. I know that doesn't sound like much of an incline, when I read about inclines like that in my book, I thought! "That's nothing". During those inclines are some straight parts and some declines, so the incline is at least 20 if not 25% which is higher than the incline on most treadmills. So without any water I didn't want to eat and get thirstier, so I pushed on. I made it to the water around 1:15 and it was first a welcome sound followed by a welcome sight of a large cool river with plenty of space to lounge around.

I made it the 7.3 miles I was planning on doing today and I am going to give sleeping in a shelter tonight a try, hopefully the mice, wind and bugs leave me alone.

I learned two things today, always look at the map before passing a water source for the next one and wash your face first when giving yourself a sponge bath.