Straight from the journal to your computer monitor... here is a paper entry transcribed.

Brown Fork Gap Shelter

Today was my first 16 mi day, but that in itself is fairly unimpressive.  What continues to amaze me is that I did 16mi on this day.

At the start, people were cleaning up and getting ready to check out.  By 8:30 or so, I got my maps, food and all all settled, and got some stuff to mail home - ~ 1lb - and then I eventually made my way over to the breakfast buffet, and there were a few people eating there and a few people about to leave (trail people).  I ate by myself for a bit, talked to a few people in the restaurant and then Coldilocks came by, and Just Glenn came by later.  I sat around occationally getting more food, having nice breakfast conversation, in absolutely no hurry whatsoever.  I then mailed the package and made my way onto the AT.

Within 5 min of getting onto the trail it starting raining off and on, a heavy drizzle or light rain at the most - just enough to feel good while hiking.  Since we were just in the river valley, we had a long climb out.  I'll have to check the map to make sure, but I'm pretty sure we did about 4,000 ft vertical elevation gain over 7 miles.  That may not sound steep, but keep in mind there were flats and declines during this section too.  There was so much uphill today.  I think we did about 1mi in vertical gain during this single day, including another section where we went up 600 ft vertical over 1/3 of a mile.

We were talking about stopping 7mi into it because of the poor weather and the elevation gain.  There were thunderstorm warnings, though a lot of the weather was subsiding at the 7mi mark.  I changed some clothes at the 7mi-shelter, quickly ate some chocolate and energy bars, got water, and headed off for the next shelter - after all, it was only 2:30.  About half of the people coming out of the NOC stayed at the 7mi shelter, the rest went for the 16.

Behond the casual breakfast, late start, elevation gain, and the wet weather, I still also stopped to look at some slugs and snails, other wildlife, some views (*some* - the rest were obscured because I was basically standing in a cloud at the highest points on the mountain), and even stopped to dig out my camera and take a couple pictures.

I am pretty satisfied with what I got out of today, considering.  I was really hauling during a lot of the last 9 because my feet hurt a lot and I just wanted to get them off!  Even with changing socks and putting on foot powder at the 7mi shelter, my feet were wet again before the end (feet sweat, and just because your socks and boots are "breathable" and wicking doesn't mean water is just vacuum-sucked out of them).  I got blisters over blisters [editor's note - the one on my pinky toe is currently the worst shade of yellow you have ever seen on human skin...], and the brittle, pruned skin became pretty sore to walk on.  They still are throbbing, but I expect they should be back to normal in the morning.  I actually spend a lot of time during the day thinking how much my feet hurt.  I used to think about how hungry I was all the time, but I don't as much now because I've been carrying a lot of food.  The night before going into the NOC I ate a 2.5 serving size of Lipton Chicken & Rice, a 4 serving of Hungry Jack potatoes, and that seemed to surprise a lot of people.  I then also had 2 Reeces peanut butter bars [editor's note - be careful how you say that, I accidently combined "Reeces peanut" with "Reeces pieces" and almost got a new trail name...], 2 granola bars, some goldfish crackers, some sausage, and the tail end of Trailbait's Mountain House she didn't like.  I have been feeding myself pretty well, and I wouldn't be surprised if I weighed the most I ever have right now.

I'm incredibly tired and I'm about to pass out.  I wonder what I'll do tomorrow [as the writing turns to scribbles and falls off the page].

There you have it!  I'll try to write more, later, but there is a day in my life, right off the pages.

- Sudoku