Today was another humbling day on the trail. After a short day yesterday we decided to crush some miles today. Knowing it was gonna be stormy all day we suited up in our rain gear and headed out.
The morning hike was quite nice we got to see 4 people after we left the shelter and they were all this morning. Blackfoot was one of the hikers that actually was slack packing back to Angels Rest Hostel. Slack packing is where you have a small book bag or pack that you care stuff just needed for the day and you hike to a destination and get picked up. It makes hiking way easier and faster. Back to this morning though, the rain didn't start until after lunch so we managed to stay pretty dry other that our feet. This was only because the Trail had turned into a river after all the rains the past for days.
We made it to the Captains place around 1. This was one of the highlights of the day. We got to this place and realized that a pretty big river separated us from the house. With some investigating we found a zip line contraption the owner had made so that hikers could cross. It was so fun, I clipped my pack and trekking poles to a line and sat in the seat and pulled my way across the river. We were able to eat lunch on the owners back porch because of the rain starting back again. This was great a dry place to eat is such a blessing, not to mention there was a fridge where they kept free sodas for hikers! What a treat to have when your day isn't going the best.
As we continued to hike after lunch the rain started to gradually pick up, the wind started to blow harder, and it got colder and colder. The farther we went the worse it got so after 20 miles today we finally threw in the towel. We looked up the closest town and called for a shuttle, luckily we were right at a gravel road were we could be picked up. We chose to go with Angels Rest Hostel because we had heard of how awesome of a place it was. After calling for the shuttle we waited an hour on them to get there and when they arrived it was like a celebration for Max and I. Today was definitely the most uncomfortable I have been on the trail, I was so cold I would have been hypothermic if I would have stayed on the trail.
On our ride back to the hostel they took us by Mountain Lake to visit, which is where Dirty Dancing was filmed. I thought it was pretty cool to see and of them for taking us there. When we got to the hostel we registered and met the others staying. One of them happened to be Dirty Harry the Aussie we met a while back. But after we got settled in we decided to ride with Merlin to an all you can eat Chinese buffet (Merlin was one of the people in the shuttle). He is an ex military man who is now going back to school to be a software engineer I believe. He ended up buying us dinner as well, which I wasn't expecting but was very thankful.
Tomorrow we have decided to just zero here because of the weather going to be around the same conditions and we can't go through another day of it. The humbling part of the day was just thinking that we were going to tough it out and get through a less than ideal weather and not being able to accomplish what we set out to do. Then think to myself when God sent his son to die on the cross for our sins, Jesus endured way worse than we could ever imagine and did it not for himself but for us. The suffering I did today was nothing compared to Jesus on the cross. I'm so thankful to be able to be a child of God because the grace and mercy shown by the cross.
Thanks for all the prayers, please continue for good weather and health!
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Location:Angels Rest Hostel
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