Hiking the Blue Wall: A Thru-Hike, Day 3

Day 3 would prove to be one of the hardest of the trail as I risked heat exhaustion and getting caught in a thunderstorm for the second consecutive day...but I'm getting ahead of myself. On June 22, 2019, I set out on a weeklong, 76.2 mile thru-hike of the Foothills Trail in the mountains of North and South Carolina. This trail, lovingly maintained by the Foothills Trail Conservancy, is a spectacular trek up and down the Blue Ridge Escarpment of the Carolinas, where the rolling hills of the Piedmont suddenly lift thousands of feet up into a wall of mountains. Scenic rivers, stunning vistas, and miles of secluded woodland trails typify the trail. I love hiking and backpacking, but life gets in the way too often. Consequently, I began the hike eager but out of shape, unsure if I’d be able to finish but thrilled to try. I worried about various things: would my sometimes-plantar fasciitis flare up? Would I suffer an injury? Would I be able to get a cell phone signal if something did happen? A personal locator beacon is something on my need-to-get list, but for this hike I was relying on myself and and a cell phone-until the cell phone died and I realized I’d forgotten to bring a charging cable. Consequently, I knew on the morning of Day 2 that I would truly be on my own, unable to contact anyone, while hiking the Blue Wall. Would I make it?