This is me no longer blissfully ignorant. Actually, at this point the worst section of the hike (the first couple miles as it turns out) is over. This is the morning of the first full day of our hike. The night before I was fairly certain I would turn back in the morning, however as the night wore on, I became less certain. When I woke up, I felt surprisingly well rested despite my difficulty in getting to sleep. I decided to continue on at least for a couple of miles and see how things went. Troy was very anxious that I not give up, because he did not want to turn back and he did not want to go alone either. I did not actually feel as bad as I look, the sun was making it difficult to look towards the camera.