START TIME: 5:05 AM 
END TIME: 9:25 PM
Today was the kind of day that separates the men from the boys—or in this case, the women from the girls.
Jen set out from Camp Creek Bald at 5:05 and reached Allen Gap a little later than expected at 7:30. It was supposed to be a 6.2-mile stretch, and Jen’s been hiking consistently at about 3 mph, so what we deduced from her slightly late arrival this morning and her early arrival last night was that I met them a mile or so farther north than I’d intended.
Jen wasn’t bothered by it but she did look pretty wiped out. Her best pair of custom insoles weren’t dry this morning so she’d worn an older pair which made her feet hurt pretty bad.
I was a little concerned that she might not want to go all the way to Snowbird Mountain as planned. At one point, it looked like she’d have to hike until close to 11 PM to make it.
But she hiked the roughly 8-mile stretch from Allen Gap to Tanyard Gap in about two hours and twenty minutes, then she hiked the 5.9-mile stretch from Tanyard to Hot Springs in an hour and forty-five minutes.
By the time she reached Hot Springs, she had an enormous cheering section that would rival any stage on the Tour de France. Ok, maybe it wasn’t that big, but she did have at least a dozen people rooting her on as she walked down Main Street. The crowd consisted of Heather and Chase Killebrew, Heather’s in-laws Barbara and Kerry, Matthew and Eliza Johnson, Ryan and Amanda Weaver, Hampton, two of Hampton’s friends from Weaverville, Mike and Jessica from the Hendersonville Times-News, and me. She cruised down the sidewalk with the reporters then took a break to eat chicken fingers and Ben & Jerry’s at the south end of town.
Matthew did a 6.6-mile stretch with her to Garenflo Gap, then Kerry offered to hike a 7.8-mile stretch with her. I was kind of skeptical that he could keep up. But I should have known better. He’s retired military. He did an awesome job.
Jen hiked the final 14.2 miles of the day on her own, reaching Max Patch at 6:35 and Snowbird Mountain by 9:25.
Snowbird Mountain is not an easy access point, and I might not have made it up there unless a local kid in a camouflage pick-up hadn’t offered to drive me to the base of the mountain and show me where to start climbing.
Jen dug deep today. And she’ll almost certainly have to dig deep a few more times during these last 250 miles. There’s no telling whether she’ll set a new record or not, but she’s going to give it everything she’s got. That’s all she can do and that’s all we can hope for.
Jen enters the Smokies tomorrow. If you’ve read her book, you know she got struck by lightning here in 2005. Here’s hoping that doesn’t happen again.