Date: 2016-05-23
From: The Doyle

To: Peter Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: scattered clouds

This morning I woke up and packed up my stuff. Stonecold and I went to get some coffees and breakfast at quick mart down the street. First we ran into Baloo whom we hadn't seen since the pizza place. He was all packed up and ready to go. Supposedly, the guys described the strippers as "poor people begging for money". Haha too sad. So I had a snickers ice-cream bar for breakfast and 20oz coffee. Yum! We sat in the sun on the porch and talked to whoever walked by as we ate our breakfast. Met a man from Alabama but I forget his name. Eventually, Fiber, Stonecold, and I hit the road around 10:15. It was a decent day, but everyone was hungover of course. We were all moving slow. I felt fine, but not 100%. We crossed a huge bridge out of town. Bugs were swarming all of us. That was gross but it was a pretty view of the town and the mountains. We got to the hill and started hiking our way up! We stopped at the first shelter to break and snack. It was loaded with cats pillars, wasps, and bumblebees. All day today the inch worms hanging from the trees mummified us in their silk. Fiber eventually passed us and I hiked slowly with Stonecold. He was feeling crappy and I was doing my best to walk and not aggravate my blisters any further. We made it to the footbridge 2.8 miles away from the shelter and took a break. We could see the rain clouds coming in and the wind began to pick up. We put on our pack covers and began hiking to the shelter quickly. We got to the top of the mountain and were hiking the ridge out in the open when the thunder began to roll in. It quickly began to pour and we distanced ourselves from each other. I ran as fast as I could. The Lightning was flashing and the thunder was loud. My blisters starting burning and the skin on my heels started to rub on my shoes and peel off my skin. The tree branches were falling from the trees 10 ft in front of me, crashing to the ground. I screamed and stopped and prayed it wouldn't hit me and kept jogging on. I prayed aloud the majority of the way to the shelter. The thunder and lightening finally slowed down and I slowed down too. I was drenched and sore. Stonecold passed me and I walked the remaining mile and a half as slow as possible. The drops turned into drizzles and I began to freeze. Every step I took burned. I could feel 10 different spots on each foot rubbing my shoes and creating more blisters. Just when they were beginning to heal, 20 minutes of rain multiplied it all.I finally reached the shelter and dumped my pack. It was full of all my friends, but I was purely miserable. (Even writing this now, my left heel is throbbing lol)I could hardly walk. I was limping around. I put my flip flops on immediately, like I always do. I ate some dinner, then crawled up into the loft to do the worst part of the whole process- clean my wounds. I peeled the tape of my blisters slowly, wincing from the pain. I bit down on a clean pair of socks and used an alcohol wipe to clean them up. The burn was excruciating. I wanted to grasp on to something so bad. Biting down didn't help, I just wanted to cry out. Next was the neosporin spray. Didn't think it would hurt, but it stung just as badly. I let my feet air out. It hurt to let my heels wrinkle. Every time I moved my feet I was in pain. I went and put my food bag away then I came back upstairs in the loft ready to relax.Stonecold and I watched the GOT episode I fell asleep trying to watch the other night. I had to lay on my stomach and keep my heels at a 90 degree angle in order to endure the pain. After that episode my skin finally gooed itself together and I was able to lay on my back. But I kept my feet out of my sleeping bag so it would get fresh air. We watched the latest episode of GOT and it was SO good!! Poor Hodor. then we went straight to sleep.I slept ok, but my feet would hurt every now and then. Today was a scary but exciting day. Wish I wasn't in pain, it's been pretty brutal.