AT Day 26

2014/4/26 Mile 417

Tried to get an early start but after getting all packed up someone thought of slack packing to Kincora. This meant a lot of futzing around until we had organized and paid for the slack.

I built the day pack from my hip belt and pack brain. Stuffed a jacket, snacks, trail book and water filter into it. We hit the trail around 1000.

Immediately lost the other guys (Fromage, Magic Man, and Wrong Way) as I wanted to hit 4 mph so I could get into Kincora with enough time to get on the town shuttle. After checking my pace against known landmarks I found that I pretty much had to jog the downhills.

The day went quickly but without a larger lunch I started running out of energy later in the day. Made it to Kincora, 25 miles, by 1640. My whole body was covered in salt crystals from sweating all day.

Cooked some dinner and then Bob Peoples, a trail legend and the proprietor of Kincora, took us into town. I just picked up snacks at the dollar store and hit the ATM.

Driving back Bob told us tons stories about trail work and other AT anecdotes. A notable one was a guy who was taking 800mg of ibuprofen every day in the morning. Ended up the medicine ate through his small intestine and they had to send in people to get pull him out and get him to a hospital. Very close call. Pretty scary how fast things can go south on you out there.

Back at the hostel went to sleep quickly. The combo of a fast and long day was just as bad as a heavy and long day...