Date: 2009-05-17
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter, VA

To: Thunder Hill Shelter, VA
Miles today: 10.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Cell goodOG notesThe bugs were visious last night. The temperature was warm so I laid on top of my sleeping bag. I was soon itchy and climbed into it even though it was too hot. We were expecting thunder showers all day. We even heard the thunder most of the day. Well it really let loose last evening, thank goodness we were in a shelter.We were also expecting rain today but only saw threats of it all day. When we arrived at the shelter I was quite cold so I climbed into my sleeping bag to warm up. They tell me I was snoring so I guess I fell asleep. A little afternoon nap never hurt anyone. It's cold this evening so I guess the bugs won't be a problem. Things change so rapidly and we live in the middle of it. Life is interesting on the trail.C6 notesMy goodness! It was 86 degrees yesterday and we sweated like crazy as we hiked all day. Now we're trying to stay warm in our sleeping bags at 3:30pm because it's 48 degrees out!! A severe thunderstorm came through last night...obviously it was a cold front blowing through! Brrrrr!We only hiked 10 miles today, but 9 of them were uphill, and a good amount of the 9 was pretty steep. We knew the terrain before we started, so I was mentally prepared, but it was challenging anyway. Only the last mile started to get to me. The worst part of today was/is how cold it became! I was concerned about so many miles of uphill because the large blister I got on my left heel was from a wet day we hiked 4 miles nonstop uphill. My heel is healed and I don't want a new blister, so I was concerned. Luckily my boots are dry, so my feet didn't suffer any negative affects from today's hike. Update on my feet - my heel healed quickly. I bought some Bandaid Advanced Healing pads and put one on my heel. It just covered the whole blistered area (about 1.5" by 2.5"). Then I wrapped my heel as if I had a sprained ankle with underwrap and sports tape. I left all that on from when I put it on in Pearisburg until I took a shower in Daleville (6 days). Wrapping my foot that way made it comfortable to hike because the wrapping didn't let the pad slide around. When I took the wrapping and pad off, my heel was completely healed. Nice!As for my left big toe, it doesn't hurt much any more. Yesterday I accidentally kicked a large rock (didn't pick my foot up high enough), which made my toe hurt badly for a short while and caused some bleeding. The toe had ached at night for a few nights, but not last night. Today it felt all right while we were hiking, so I think it's getting better. It sure looks ugly though.OG is having some issues with his left knee. It seems to be mostly okay when he's hiking, but some rocks cause problems and he's in pain when not hiking. We are hoping it will calm down after taking 4 days off from hiking over Memorial Day weekend.Red Leg is having foot issues, too. He developed foot fungus a few weeks ago and has been battling it since. After a few hours of hiking his toes swell and throb. Yesterday's 20.6 miles were a killer for him. He's hoping the Memorial Day weekend off will help his feet, too.We're a bunch of invalids!Old Goat & Check Six