Day Two of My Unsupported Ozark Trail FKT Attempt!

Miles Walked: 50.31 (108.46 total)
Elapsed Time: 20h 8m 11s
Sleep The Night Before: 2.5 hours
Current Average: 54.375 miles per day
Existing Record: 51.4 miles per day avg (4 days, 11 hrs, 28.5 min total)

Time for another day on the trail! I decided early to move a little slower today and baby my feet. They got so wet yesterday that my goal was to devote today to making them feel better. That only half-worked — I did move slower and I did baby my feet, but there was tons of water yet again, so by the end of today they are much worse than yesterday. I guess dealing with these feet and overcoming the pain is just going to be the major challenge of this trip.

I put on my third pair of dry socks first thing this morning (only two fresh pairs left), but just 3.4 miles after starting out I had to cross another stream and get them wet. But aside from that, the morning was beautiful. The birds, frogs, and insects are insanely loud out here, which makes for a peaceful forest experience. I enjoyed my morning shake (a double-dose of Skratch Recovery Latte and 1/2 cup of instant oats) while walking as the sun rose. The day was off to a great, albeit painful, start.

While hiking today I often took my shoes off for river crossings — I almost never do this on normal hikes, but it was worth it this time. I spotted three turtles today and only pulled 24 ticks off my legs! That’s 11 fewer than the 35 I pulled yesterday, and brings my total count for the trip up to 59 so far. In terms of animals, I also saw a sign telling me there are elk in the area, and shortly after that I saw elk prints and heard a few elk crashing through the forest. I had no idea Missouri had elk! Unfortunately, I wasn’t lucky enough to spot them. I also saw two armadillos, which was very exciting. I’ve known that there are Armadillos in Missouri, but I’ve only ever spotted them dead on the side of the road. I learned two things about armadillos on this trip:

1. They’re nocturnal. I only see them at night, and this explains why I haven’t spotted them previously.
2. They’re clumsy. Until I got used to the sounds they make, I thought there were much larger animals around. A large deer makes almost no noise as it prances through the forest, but a little armadillo sounds like a bulldozer with a track that’s come loose.

In the afternoon I noticed that thanks to some sunshine, my shirt had dried out despite the humidity. I had the “genius” idea to dry out my socks inside my shirt since they weren’t drying out hung from my pack. I looked a little bit pregnant while walking with my socks stuffed in my shirt, but after a few hours I realized it wasn’t working at all.

At trail mile 83 I met an Ozark Trail Association volunteer named Cathy who was out with some backpackers including two children — the next generation of hikers! Cathy knew about my attempt so it was exciting to be able to give her an update. They were all cheering for me to be successful, so that was good encouragement and helped me power on.

I got to see two beautiful views today! The first was one of the trail’s high-points, a granite peak just north of the Peck Ranch conservation area. Since most of the Ozark Trail is limestone, the granite was really cool to see. I reached back in my mind to remember previous hikes of the Ozark Trail when Renee and I lived in Missouri, and I remembered noticing granite then too. I’ve been reading a lot of geology books over the past year and have learned that Missouri was once at the bottom of an ocean (hence the limestone), so I played detective to figure out why this part is granite. My theory: the high points like this were never submerged, or weren’t far-enough submerged for limestone to accumulate. I don’t know if that’s right, but it’s fun to pretend to be a geologist on a hike! The second beautiful view was a climb that took me above the Current River. It was gorgeous, and I got there right at sunset which only added to the beauty (picture at the top of this post).

With help from ibuprofen, I was able to hike into the night despite rain. Usually Renee and I try not to take pain-killers on our thruhikes; we want to feel our bodies so that we don’t push too hard and get injured. On this hike I am pushing too hard, and I probably am injuring myself… But, getting this done is my goal, so I’m OK with it this time. If ibuprofen gets me through the next 2-3 days, some minor injuries are worth it. When the rain finally died down at 2:18 am, I was so exhausted I decided to sleep in the light rain. My plan going into this hike had been to walk through the night if it was raining, but in practice that wasn’t possible. I walked over 20 hours today, and I was ready for sleep! I pulled out my sleeping bag, set at alarm for 4am (so I’ll get about 1.5 hours of sleep), and quickly drifted off to the sound of rain drops landing on my sleeping bag and ground sheet.