Tuesday, April 29, 2025. Up at 7:30. Partly sunny and 55 degrees, going up to 84.
Got moving slow today. Short day, so I’m in no hurry. On trail at 9:20.
Really tough morning. Ups and downs. I’m out of shape, in case I had not previously mentioned that. Stopping very frequently on the uphills.
Ed could not find his hearing aids. Fairly certain he packed them up in his tent. Not knowing bothered him so much that he stopped and unpacked everything until he found them.
We passed the 1,000-mile mark for Springer Mountain.
Stopped to filter water and take a break at noon and 3.8 miles in.
Ed somehow triggered his emergency alert on his Garmin watch while getting water. He had to call his son to let him know all was well and texted Lisa that it was an error.
We exited the southern end of the Roller Coaster at 3:20.
We made it to Rod Hollow shelter at 3:45. We talked to a section hiker our age from St. Louis for quite a while. He is doing the trail in one-month sections over a few years. I love his approach. He parks his car with all his spare gear and resupply at a secure place like a hostel or a formal campground. Then gets a shuttle to trail about 5-6 days away and hikes back to his car. Rinse, repeat. Really good guy. He is doing the exact same section as us, so we should see a lot more of him over the next 2 weeks.
Lots of NOBO thru-hikers rolled in around 5:30. About 10 of them. Sort of a mini bubble. They started in the Feb timeframe. Chatted with them a bit. Funny how they kind of ignored the three old guys until they found out I thru-hiked last year. Then they were much more engaging.
Crawled into the tent about 7:00. Not tired but not really my scene at the picnic table with all the youngsters. Worked on blogs and talked to Dana.
Slowly getting used to tent life again.
As I mentioned, I’m moving very slowly on the steep uphills. I know it’s only day 3, but I know I was doing better at this point last year. We only did 1.3 miles per hour today. I’m not loving my new pack. I’m having some back issues and hip issues. I need to try some changes to the pack setup over the next few days. It just might not be right for my body. I’m also carrying too much weight. We will see how it goes.
Technical Notes:
- Honey stinger waffle – 150
- Hazelnut nut butter – 200
- Crackers – 190
- Chomps – 90
- Trail mix – 180
- Chomps – 90
- Ramen – 380
- Dehydrated chicken – 170
- Payday – 250
- Water liters: 3.4
- Miles: 7.1
- Time: 6:28
- Elevation gain: 2096
- Elevation descent: 2146
- Calories consumed: 1700
- Calories burned: 2679
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