Date: 2010-05-23
From: Cove Mountain Shelter

To: Thunder Hill Shelter
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: scattered clouds

No bears last night, but the bats were flying in and out of the shelter. I guess I can deal with that, they aren't trying to steal my food anyhow.Woke up this morning and the pain I had started to feel the last few miles of hiking yesterday hadn't improved. The pain was on the arch of my foot so I just attributed it to the long day of hiking yesterday. I was tired this morning and didn't get moving till around eleven again. Today was going to be a tough day full of over 3000 foot of elevation gain and 4500+ feet of climbing. Just the thought made me sluggish.Jennings creek was but a few miles down the trail and would have been an excellent place to go swimming if I wasn't already wet (and starting to chafe pretty bad) and if it wasn't another rainy day... or at least one of those days where the sky can't decide what it wants to do. The water was cold so I decided to grab my sit pad (aka Kellys pad) and soak my sore foot in the creek for a little while and mentally prepare myself for the rest of the day. The trail was quiet, I must be in a pocket of thru hikers at the moment both in front and behind. I didn't see a soul till nearly two when I ran across 151 sitting next to a stream. The skies had been darkening by this time and the sky was rumbling consistently with thunder so I let him know I was going to try to book it to the next shelter before the rain hit and moved on.When I reached the shelter the chafing on my thighs had gotten pretty bad and the only thing I had with me to think of putting on it was anti-itch cream. I figrued it wouldn't hurt to try and it actually worked excellent, must have been the zinc Unfortunately it wasn't going to help my sore foot, which had progressively started feeling worse as I continued to hike. Although it was tempting to stay at the Bryant's Ridge Shelter which was an absolutely beautiful and huge shelter, I decided to move on since I only had a couple of days worth of dog food left for Kelly. Well, I made it about another five miles before every step I took in my shoes pushed against the top of my foot and I couldn't deal with the pain anymore so I took my shoes off and hiked. The terrain was forgiving but my uncalloused feet could only hike barefoot for so long before they became sensitive over the twigs and rocks so after about a mile I took a compromise and put my crocs on. It felt really good hiking barefoot and although the pain was still there, it had considerably lessened. Wish my feet were tougher, I would do it more often. Hiking in the crocs really wasn't that bad, yes, my feet were dirty, but as long as there were rocks, roots, sticks, and leaves, I had good enough traction to keep a steady pace and with the wet weather, I think it was more pleasurable than hiking in a personal marsh I call hiking shoes (although dirtier I am sure my feet smelled better as well). I ended up skipping the next shelter with the intention of finishing up the climb today. Expecting to be alone again at the shelter I was surprised to see thruhikers Eddy and Kentucky who had taken a short day to help avoid some of the rain. Although the rain has been nice, my gear hasn't had a chance to dry out and my clothes smell awful. Tomorrow I have almost fifteen miles to Glasgow and will be doing laundry there.