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That one morning on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia where nothing went right
I was coming out of Pearisburg heading north last October, and for like 3 days straight the weather was perfect. But on the fourth morning I woke up at 3 AM to my tent flooding because the rain fly had a tiny tear I didn't patch. Everything was soaked, my pack weighed about 10 extra pounds with all the wet gear. I slipped crossing a creek around mile 615 and dunked my left foot up to the ankle. Then around 2 PM I realized I'd taken the wrong side trail off Peters Mountain and added 2 miles of steep bushwhacking to my day. By the time I made camp near Rice Field shelter I was exhausted but had this weird adrenaline high from just pushing through it all. Has anyone else had a day that started awful but ended up being your most memorable on trail?
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stellat4617h ago
That whole day sounds like a perfect example of how the worst starts often turn into the best stories. I notice this same thing happens all the time in regular life, like when you spill coffee on your shirt before a big meeting but end up getting the promotion anyway because you just kept going. The key is that you didn't quit when everything went wrong, you just adapted and pushed forward, and that's what made the memory stick. What was that weird adrenaline high like for you, did it feel like a big win even though the day was a mess?
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lily_cooper11h ago
Yeah that reminds me of the time I locked my keys in the car at a trailhead in Vermont, had to hike 8 miles to the nearest ranger station in flip flops, and by the time I got back my car had a parking ticket but I'd seen the best sunset of my life from the ridge I would've missed otherwise.
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