First Day Feels

Day 1

It was terribly windy when we woke up this morning, so much so that it was tempting to delay our start by a day. But a glance at my weather app said the wind would die down by 10 am, so we went for it. Gagoo and Mom drove Henry, Sawyer and I to the start of the trail early in the morning. We were not impressed by our starting point. According to Guthook, the start of the trail was on the side of some random road a few miles outside of Flintstone, Maryland. We're now thinking the only reason it starts on this random spot in the middle of nowhere is because it is a connector for the Great Eastern Trail?

Somewhere in the middle of five miles of road walking later we crossed over the border into PA. Not long after we finally veered off of a gravel road and into the woods, it was starting to feel like a trail now. The wind never really did die down at all. The sun was out and bright and it felt good to be back hiking, mountain springs gushing, birds chirping.

Although I tried to delay it for as long as possible, it wasn't long before my trail runners were soaked through, my feet freezing. The "trail" was soaked with the recent amount of rain we'd received and it was impossible to avoid or keep my feet dry. We passed over the highest point on the entire trail today. A few inches of snow lay on the ground and ice crystals clung to the trees. Laying here in the quilt now, I am still trying to warm my feet up on Henry's legs.

Sawyer did incredible today, as always. We have the tarp set up in a nice holler in between two mountains to keep out of the wind. This is my first time ever sleeping under the tarp and so far I like it a lot, we have way more room than my Duplex. Henry is on one side of me, Sawyer on the other. Our moods improved more and more as the day went on today and overachieving on our mileage goal was a cherry on top. We were in bed by 5:30 and exhausted. Henry made dinner, twilight is just now falling and we are ready for bed. We are so warm cuddled up in the quilt and I know I'm going to sleep like a rock tonight.