Beginning Point: Daleville, VA
Ending Point: Wilson Creek Shelter
Daily Mileage: 11.4 Miles
Total Miles: 724.9 Miles
Weather: Hot and humid, but it was sunny!
We planned on moving out of town on Tuesday but the day kinda ran away from us. Sort of. It's difficult to get everything done that you need to do in town when you don't have a car, especially when everything's all spread out. We woke up at 8:30 and enjoyed our continental breakfast with Slow Barbara, who also happened to be in the same hotel. Then we did laundry and finally vacated our room at 12:30 (love the late checkouts). Since she planned on staying a second night, Slow Barbara let us put our things in her room while we did our other errands.
First we went to the outfitters so I could get get new trail shoes and we all needed things like fuel and aqua mira (chemicals to treat water so we don't need to filter). Stephan had new carbide tips put on his trekking poles since he managed to shear both tips off recently. Dan bought a new alcohol stove (same as Stephan and I, by Etowah Outfitters) and a new bite valve for his hydration system - apparently mice had been chewing on the old one. After trying on nearly every shoe they had, I settled on a pair of Montrails. I took a photo of them after one days hike - really a half day of hiking - and I plan to monitor their performance over the next several weeks because I've seen hikers limping into town after 300 miles and their formerly new shoes were completely blown out. I hope to get a little more life than that from these shoes, but then again, most shoes or boots aren't designed for thru-hiking.
After the outfitters, we went to lunch because its not wise to shop on an empty stomach. Then we hit the Krogers. $60 later it was 3:30 and we hadn't been to the post office yet, which we planed to hit after we picked up our packs from Slow Barbara. Where does the time go? The PO was in the opposite direction of the hotel and nearly 2 miles away. So at 4:00 we called it a day, picked up some beer and sat by the pool with Slow Barbara.
Slow Barbara is a fun lady. She hikes between 10 and 12 miles per day and uses wooden sticks (they have names - Mr. and Mrs. Stick) for trekking poles. She is a 1st grade teacher from NC and the local newspaper is keeping tabs on her. If you've taken a look at my photos from 6/14/04, you can see a picture of her showing a "war wound" in the form of a nasty bruise on her thigh. Every week she sends the newspaper a letter that describes her life on the trail. She said that she thinks she's embarrassing her family with all the discussions about shelter privies (but people always ask about that stuff).
After a few hours by the pool, we decided to risk our lives in search of dinner by walking along the roadside, which was more of a highway. We went to Taco Bell and over-ate. Then we waddled over to the CVS to pick up some forgotten items. I stumbled across a remote controlled whoopee cushion (basically a speaker box) that made 4 or 5 distinctly different farting noises. We played with that for a while - you'd easily mistake us for 12-year olds, I think. I also picked up a radio because lately I've ben taking hills slowly and the boys leave me in the dust, so now I have something to keep me company.
A problem I'm having of late is my heels. Hiking in the rain has made the skin of both heels very tender and calluses were forming. But then a week of the trail in DC caused those calluses to peel off. Since being back on the trail, I've been dealing with pre-callus burns and such, but Tuesday my right heal split open while I was putting my new shoes on. That really hurt! And the heel has been a tough area for me to protect because all forms of bandaids, blister care, new skin, moleskin, and yes, duct tape slide off my heel while hiking. Its very annoying to say the least. Hopefully it won't be a problem tomorrow.
Slow Barbara is coming over to our room to watch a movie on TV so I'll say goodnight now.
Butterfingers
Posted by steph at July 11, 2004 02:47 PM