It stormed on us from 9 until 11 and been on and off for 2 hours. I’m using a homemade tarp setup that I just love. Unfortunately, the seams saturated really early and my entire ground cloth and gear started getting wet.
It wasn’t just rain. Ice. Snow. It was crazy. After I mitigated as much as I could by moving things to drier ground if I could find any, I realized my quilt and pad might be a lost cause. Earplugs weren’t helping this storm so instead of listening and worried, I put music on. Damage would be done. Might as well try to sleep.
But. Everything dries quickly out here. I woke up to go to the bathroom at 1 and might ground cloth was starting to dry already and my quilt didn’t look terrible. The pad is a different story but I’m hoping it has time to dry tomorrow.
Last night while it was storming, I just thought, “Where do I get off the trail?” “Where are my outs?” “This might be enough to scare me off the trail.”
When I woke up, I thought, “This has been the hardest hiking I’ve done. If I quit when hiking was difficult, I’d be off on day one. If I quit when I was in so much pain I could barely go 100 yards, I would have quit on day 2. Am I going to let some cold, wet rain scare me?” I stayed warm all night. So the rain was just scary to me. That’s all.
There’s a phrase on the Appalachian Trail, never quit on a bad day. That’s what I’m deciding today. Not to quit. And it sent a rush of joy down my body that I’m strong enough for this.
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