Date: 2013-06-23
From: Piney River North Fork Campsire

To: Harpers Creek Shelter
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: scattered clouds

June 23rd, Day 40. Piney river north fork campsite to Harpers creek shelter.Left Achilles. Shit.Before that though, some morning drizzle had me staying in my hammock till 7 am, but after that I was quick to get up and get moving. The trail was pretty reasonable and I was making pretty good time. The mornings clouds never really disappeared, and a massive afternoon thunderstorm got everything nice and wet.At about noon I began the descent down priest mountain and at some point my Achilles lost it. Lots of pain on the downhills and soreness the rest of the time. I slow moseyed the remaining 3.5 miles to the next shelter where I called it a day at 3pm with a total of 16 miles. Sitting around in camp is boring as hell, I don't know how people do it all the time. Fairly unrelated, but my hammock pitch last night was good and I slept great and I'm thinking it will be the same tonight.Back to this Achilles, it all hinges on how it feels in the morning. If it's just a bit sore I'll do two easy 12 mile days to get into Waynesboro. I should have just enough food, but I'll probably be coming into town empty. If I wake up and it's feeling really painful it's 3 miles sobo or 8 miles nobo to the nearest road. I really don't want to back track but it might come to that. After that I somehow make it to buena vista or Waynesboro for some zeros. Fingers crossed it feels way better in the morning but I'm not hopeful. My quick pace might have finally caught up with me.In other news I finally saw a squawk bird! there have been many birds on the trail, from the videogame bird (which I later learned is a veery) to the loud red necked woodpecker to the striped mouse birds, to the Turkeys. However the one that always eluded me was the squawk bird. They have a very loud, distinctive squawk and tend to squawk in sets of 3 or 4. They'll squawk during the day or at night, they really don't care. Well today I saw one and based on my totally limited knowledge of birds I think the squawk bird is a raven. Which sucks, because I hate the ravens. Screw the dirty birds, go steelers! I'm sure I'll hear more squawk birds on the trail but their mysterious veil of squawking secrecy had been lifted.I was also planning on celebrating day 40 on the trail by trying to capture a normal hiking day via photos to convey what it's normally like because most of the pictures are of beautiful overlooks or views while in reality those are the rare exception rather than the norm. It's difficult to convey how awesome the views are after hiking for 15 miles in dense Forest. so today I took a picture when I woke up and then every hour on the hour. Because I stopped so early the results are limited, but it really was a downer to see the pictures. I almost don't want to share them. Every single one was a rocky/dirt path with trees and under growth on both sides. They call Virginia the green tunnel for a reason.At the shelter I got to chat with a nice couple out for a week section hike. Of course they were from Baltimore. Damn squawk birds. Also meet a really cool older thru named blacksquatch. Yea, he's black. Really funny guy, great sorry teller. I could have listened to him all day but he wanted to squeeze in another 10 miles.I'm not sure if it's the hammock or the fact that I've been by a steam every night for the last week but I've been sleeping way better. Last night I only woke up once to pee which I did without even getting out of the hammock, just had to unzip and lean over a bit . that's way better than in the shelters where I would regularly wake up 6 to 10 times a night to shuffle around and try to get more comfortable. Regardless of why the sleep has been much better and I'm doing my best to enjoy it. regardless of how the Achilles is doing tomorrow I can afford to sleep in a bit. Nice.It's only 8 15 but if I keep writing I might as well slap a cover page and bibliography on this entry and call it an essay. Which makes me think of school in the fall and how exited I am for it. it's going to be a lot of work but I'm looking forward to the academic second chance. I pretty much coasted through undergrad aiming for Bs, but that's going to change. I think it's about working for every single point on every single assignment. Every marginal point adds up to the final grade, just like every marginal mile adds up to the length of the trail. Breaking whole semesters worth of assignments and grades into the little pieces they are and treating them like the miles on trail. Every mile you hike in the morning you don't have to hike in the afternoon, and every mile you hike today you don't have to hike tomorrow. Every bit of work you do today is work you don't gave to do tomorrow. Now the challenge is that there's a lot less distractions on the trail, but it's all about the self control regardless of where you are. Looking forward to doing work this fall semester!I thought this hammock vented pretty well but I just farted and it's just sitting in here with me. Gross. Anything I can smell over my generic hiker funk has to be just plain nasty. Thank goodness for the cool evening Virginia breeze for finally clearing that out. I'm missing hog and crank and how they would all fart as we hiked along and I would desperately try to hike at the front of the pack. It's the little things.It's finally dark enough to start trying to get some sleep. The bear bag is up, the teeth are brushed, the feet have been lotioned (I picked some up in buena vista cause I was seeing some cracking, too early to tell if its making a difference), and all signs point to sleep. I even just yawned. Its time cozy down, goodnight!