The wind roared last night, like freight trains rolling through the mountains. I had staked out the sides of my tent with my trekking poles. One of the poles blew over and woke me up at about 9:30. I got out and restaked it. They both blew over at some other point. I didn’t bother restaking them. 
  
I slept well but woke up early, as usual. I wanted an early start anyways. I ate breakfast then packed up and headed out into the dusting of snow about 7:30. 

   
I leapfrogged with another SOBO section hiker. He was going slow and steady, and I was racing along. My legs felt strong and I enjoyed stretching them long and fast. I could remember back to Kindergarten, running the mile run for the Presidential Fitness Test, and Jay Locklin’s mom yelling, “Come on Lindsey! Stretch those long legs!” My legs are long, as long as my dad’s, and he’s taller than me by several inches. They are made to be stretched down the trail. 

  
 I stopped to eat breakfast at a shelter and spent quite a while chatting with the thruhikers still abed (also eating breakfast) there, so the section hiker caught up to me. That’s how our day went. 
The hikers at the shelter were a fun bunch. I stayed there longer than I meant to because I enjoyed talking to them so much. It turned out that one them them turned 30 this morning, so I offered him some of the bourbon I’d brought along. He was very excited, as were the other hikers. That bourbon was a good idea. 
We talked about pocket rockets, which is a design project I have for one of my classes. I’d promised my group I’d try to do some field research this weekend. We have to find things to improve about our product, so this was a good opportunity to gather ideas. The hikers were all excited about my project, and we spent quite a while talking about heat transfer as well. Engineering makes me a lot of friends. 

I hiked on, then stopped to chat briefly with a turkey hunter. All of my study group at school are hunters, so I’d known it was just now turkey hunting season. 
I stopped at Shelton graves, the burial site of two Union soldiers who were killed while home visiting family. 

Two paths diverged in a wood. 

  
Guess which one I took?

  
I climbed Firescald Knob. The views were lovely. 

    
The climb was intense. 

   
   
This was the check to see if I’ve eaten too many snickers. I passed. Barely. 

  
I hit 20 miles at 4:30pm today. That’s a little insane. I was booking it. The trail was also pretty forgiving. 

  
I kept going. 
This climb about did me in. I was 22 miles in and I was just done. The blue dot is me and I was headed to the orange house. I think. 

  
I made it to the shelter well before sunset though. It was tent city, but I tomorrow I only have 11.3 miles to go. The guys I’m tenting with are all really fun. I like them a lot. We had a nice time chatting. Makes me look forward to sectioning in warm weather when we don’t immediately retreat to tents. 

  
But look at this blister! 

  
I am so cold. I took a Benadryl. I hope I can just pass out. 

MVP: caffeine water. I chugged a bottle of it and then noticed I was even talking fast. Lol. 
LVP: that blister. I pricked it with my knife so it could drain tonight. Hopefully it’ll dry out by the morning.