-- Stats from Day 32 --
Beginning Point: Hogback Ridge Shelter
Ending Point: No Business Knob Shelter
Daily Mileage: 20.6 miles
Total Mileage: 332.6 miles
Weather: Warm and humid with heavy afternoon showers.
Today was our biggest mile day since the start of the trail. We broke it up into even halves since a shelter was about 10 miles from our starting point. We made it there without trouble, however we perhaps stayed too long - about 2 hours - so we had a late start. Since Erwin was close, hikers kinda bunched up and we had a good crew assembled for lunch (photo is coming). At any rate, we didn't leave until 3 pm with looming gray skies and possible thunderstorms.
Not even an hour from the lunch shelter the skies opened up on us and we continued to slog through the building stream that developed on the trail. As we ascended a hill, the lightning and thunder was crashing all around us. Shivers (Chris) and Goofy (Pat), our fellow Storm Troopers, were not far in front of us; we always seem to hear thunder when on mountaintops near them. Maybe they've angered the weather gods. So, when we saw lightning strike near the hill we were climbing, we decided not to go further and hide out under my groundcloth / makeshift raincover for about 15 minutes. We learned from our last match with lightning. We heard from Yogi and Shoe that there was also hail on the mountaintop, however we missed that.
After the rain stopped, our journey showed marked improvement. The woods appeared greener, the woodland smell was fresher, and we traveled through a beautiful ravine with a babbling brook. Everything looks and smells better after the rain. Everything, that is, except hikers.
Dan and I have developed some pretty intense foot pains, and both of us made sure to baby our feet at lunch. The rest did my feet well, however at about 15 miles, they began sounding some serious protests. We took a snack break around 5:30 and continued on, finally arriving to camp around 7:30 - thank all that is good! And we broke 20 miles!
I've noticed that I still get sore muscles - I can even pull muscles that I use everyday. My gluteus should already be maximus, but uphills kill me! They make my butt hurt. I am supposed to be a hiking goddess by now. A goddess shouldn't have to deal with pulled muscles. Oh well, guess I need to stretch more often and keep up with the "Vitamin I" (ibuprofen) regime.
When we arrived at No Business Knob, we found a shelter that only sleeps 6 and about 12 of us there. Since we were the last to arrive, we had to tent. Which was amusing because Terrapin, Goofy and Shivers set up their Eureka Solos and then there were the three Tarp-tents from Yogi, Mike and Stephan. It was a veritable "tent-opolis" and I wish I took a photo. I think Yogi did.
We were quite tired from the hike and went to bed just after dark. We were all looking forward to a short 6-mile hike into town the next day.
Goodnight,
Steph