Saturday, April 27, 2013

Day 40: Curley Maple Gap Shelter

Hello world,

It is your friendly neighborhood Wendy here with another update from the trail!

Well, to say today was another roller coaster would be quite the understatement. If you had asked me 15 minutes before 6pm and 15 minutes after how my day was going you would have recieved quite different answers.

Today was suppose to be a 13 mile day to a campsite outside of Erwin. We had high hopes of leaving the hostel early and hiking all day, however the allure of other hikers and talking to loved ones once again kept us back. By noon we had finally hiked out of the hostel, however at this point Breeze was feeling quite ill.

Worried about the current stomach virus spreading throughout the thru hiker ranks, we played it safe and only hiked 4.7 miles today where Breeze promptly took a nap. At this point we were concerned that be had the virus and that soon his night would be filled with vomiting. Little did we know the night had something else in store.

When Breeze awoke from his slumber, we found some writing on the shelter wall. What we had failed to realize was that this shelter was in fact home to the legendary Rocky pizza challenge. This challenge consists of a few basic rules: teams of 2 run the 4.7 miles down to town, pick up a minimum of 2 large pizzas and 24 beers and return to the shelter as fast as possible!

To say that Breeze is a trooper would now be the understatement of the year. Despite his ailments he was interested the second he read the challenge. 2 minutes later he was telling me he was lacing up his boots and that I better join suit. It was a ton of fun and we completed the first pizza challenge of 2013 as well as ranked top 5 in challenge times! We ran the 9.4 miles, as well as got the pizza and beverages, in 3 hours and 10 minutes!

It was a really fun challenge and we were treated like royalty at the shelter for our acts. All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better activity to turn my day around! Hopefully Breeze is in better shape tomorrow so we can continue our rampage towards Damascus.

Until next time,
Wendy









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