Date: 2012-04-20
From: Mountaineer Falls Shelter

To: Kincora Hiker Hostel
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: broken clouds

Last night I was very hot because we were sleeping high up in the rafters and the heat was rising up there all night. We woke up at around 7:15am and we were the last ones to leave the shelter and were on the trail by 8:00am.  The trail was really easy in the morning so we did more then five miles in the first two hours but soon the trail started to roller coster up and down, 200 to 400 feet over and over again so we started to slow down. Today was partly sunny but it was still hot enough that I was sweating up a storm and all the water sources were little trickling streams and not very reliable so I was thirsty all day and was not drinking enough. As a resault of not drinking enough, I really slowed down and by mid day my knee started bothering me again for the first time since Georgia. We made it to the next shelter at around 12:45pm and ate lunch. Gran Bob was there and he was also have knee trouble. I told Big Sky and Slim to go on ahead of of me and I stayed behind a bit longer to rest my knee. About an half hour later I started up the trail again.My knee is fine when I going up hill but it hurts on the down hill and of course after that shelter the rest of the trail mostly went down hill. There is a hiker hostel six miles from the shelter and we had planned to meet up there. We were going to shower and wash our clothes and then continue on to the next shelter 1.5 miles past the shelter. My knee really slowed me down on the down hill and I did not get to the hostel until 3:30pm where I met back up with Big Sky and Slim.  I had no energy left from going down the mountian because I had to compensate for my bad knee by using my good leg more and using my hiking poles as basicaly crutches at some of the steeper parts. I knew that I was not not going to be able to go on to the next shelter so we all decided to stay at the hostel for the night....right now I am laying in bed and I am trying to do my journal on my phone and a cat is rubbing against my stomach and rubbing its head on my phone and it is making this very difilcult....but anyway we found three free beds and set up for the evening.First things first, we all showered and soon after it was time to head into town. The hostel was packed so it was very tight in the cars...in the truck I do beileve there was 14 people and 6 people in the car. We were soon flying down the mountain roads and soon arrived in town and we all piled out and all went our separate ways. Big Sky, Slim, Steam Roller, Steak, Sipsy, Grato and I all ate at Arby's and we filled up on food for the night. Once we were all filled up we hobbled back to the truck, you can really pick out the hikers in a crowd just by how we walk around town, we are usaually really full of food and we are quite sore so we hobble around...its called the Hiker Hobble. We all piled back into the truck and headed back to the Hostel. We hung out for the rest of the evening at the hostel and most of us sat around going through the Trivial Pursuit cards asking all the quiestions until we all decided to call it a night. Tomorow we are hoping to do around 16 miles to the second shelter but I will have to see how my knee holds up. I hope this does not become a real problem, as long as I can make it to Damascus Va in the next few days I will be picking up my new boots. My current boots need to be retired. They are really caving in on the inside of both my feet so that may be whats causing my knee pain because everythings out of wack. Well time for bed...night all.