Snail pushed back by wind every hour

A snail is $30$ feet from its food and crawls toward it at $4$ feet per hour. At the end of every hour a gust pushes it $2$ feet back. It eats the moment it reaches the food. After how many hours does it get there?

$14$ hours. Each full hour nets $2$ feet, so after $13$ hours the snail is $26$ feet along. During the $14$th hour it crawls the remaining $4$ feet and reaches the food before any further gust matters.