Stephanie's Trail Journal

Saturday, May 22nd

Starting Point: Jerry Cabin Shelter
Ending Point: Hogback Ridge Shelter
Daily Mileage: 14.7 miles
Total Mileage: 312.1 miles
Weather: warm, muggy and buggy with early evening thunderstorms.

We hiked through some beautiful woodland scenery this afternoon. Here's some plant stuff for the plant people... Solomon's seal, false Solomon's seal, white trillium, indian strawberry, bluebead lily, canada mayapple, mayapple, galax, bowmans root... just to name a few; I can't remember them all. The forest floor was very lush and sun-dappled - very pretty. Everything is a beautiful shade of green.

Stephan was in the "doghouse" first thing this morning. I was still in the tent when he decided it was time to put the tent away. I was still putting things away when the tent fell down on me. Later in the morning he made reference to Jennifer Anniston being better than me! I only feigned being upset but it was fun teasing him about it. Dan helped me out by egging him on to say things he would later take back.

Stephan would like to tell his version:

I did not compare her to J. Anniston, All I said was she is pretty. And if stephanie didn't take all morning to get her face on and pack up her gear she would have been ready to hike.

She said: That was not how the story goes, but for the sake of keeping peace, I will let this topic go.

At any rate, my dogs were barking this afternoon as I didn't have enough to eat during the day. I should correct myself and say that I didn't eat enough during the morning... so that made my afternoon run long. I was having that numbness in my big toes and the massage therapist I saw in Hot Springs said to put some foam around the ball of my foot or maybe try inserts for that part of the foot. Dan bought some of those inserts and he gave me a pair so I duct-taped them to my Super-feet inserts. The first day my feet felt great, but the second day my left foot hurt pretty badly. Yesterday was only 14 miles and relatively easy terrain and my left foot was so sore. I might have to get different footwear sooner than anticipated.

Most everyone is having foot or knee problems - I should say pains. And just about everyone uses trekking poles too. Terrapin (Bryan) I think has the worst looking feet... I think he has a sixth toe growing out of his pinky toe. And the rest of his toes look as though they've seen better days.

Well gotta get going. We have a 20-mile day planned for tomorrow.

Steph

www.hikingat.com

Posted by steph at May 25, 2004 06:17 PM