CDT Day 11 (5/29/23)
Miles 253.9 (Pink line mile 84.6)-283.8 (Red line mile 352) (29.9 miles)
Verbatim
It was freezing last night under the cold open sky. It was an hour into the morning’s walking that I made it to the tree line. So I never would have made it last night. Still, the absence of the tree’s warmth left me shivering in a ball for most of the night. There was a slight frost on the cover of this very journal when I woke up. My eye blind is working really well, and meant that I didn’t wake up until 7. The sun was well over the horizon and was beginning to warm me in my sleeping bag. That was a nice feeling.
I walked a pretty aggressive 15 miles in about 4 1/2 hours straight. Now I’m beside a cool stream soaking my feet. I met Adjunct this morning, a section hiker.
Now I get to call with Nathan! The climb up to this mountain top was really rough.
Post Note
In today’s milage is revealed one of the great philosophical quandaries of thruhiking culture. The question is: is a 29 a 30? This is an important question! A 30 is a big day! That’s 10 hours of walking at 3mph. Up and down mountains! Or it’s 15 hours of walking at 2mph. Up and down mountains! And sometimes you try really really hard and then you just can’t get to 30. You get to 29 instead. And other times you know you can get to 30 but also know you can’t get to 31 or 32. And then at mile 29.5 you realize that there is no way you’re camping at mile 30 but you’re too tired to go past it to mile 31 to camp. So looks like you’re stopping at 29.9. Is that a 30? It should have been a 30. Maybe it even could have been a thirty if not for the frickin tree line deciding to stop at mile 29.7.
Don’t think this is a trivial quandary. The question of milage is a question of morale. Being able to say, “Yeah I crushed three 30’s in the last second to make it a four day resupply,” is a big deal! If you were doing 25’s instead it would have taken you five days on the section and then you would have gone hungry on day five and that really sucks. And a lot of things out here really suck and so I want to feel good where I can. So I want to say I did a 30 but I actually only did a 29.9. So, is it a 30 or not?!
Only you can decide I suppose. But I’ll tell you. A 28.anything is not a 30. That’s too far from 30. It’s just a high 20. Which is also nice but not the same.