Date: 2015-06-10
From: Pine Knob Shelter

To: Deer Lick Shelters
Miles today: 22.7
Weather: clear sky

Today's miles began with a broad, mostly flat old dirt roadbed. It was easy on the feet and easy on the mind. However, as the ridge went north, it became more and more rocky. In places, your feet only touched rocks or boulders, never dirt.I hiked alone again, even though I had made plans last evening via text to meet up with Count and Lavender...somehow our messages were misinterpreted and we missed each other. They remained ahead of me all day, but I had no way of knowing how far. I was feeling a bit lonely as a result, and am thankful for Allison's having a text conversation with me...you'll never know just how much of a lifeline that can be! And so I walked, and I visited a few very nice shelters, to eat lunch and take a break, stretch and massage my foot, etc. At the beautiful new Raven Rock Shelter, there is a loft with actual ladder, huge overhang roof, with covered deck (this keeps a lot of dirt out of the shelter itself) with picnic table where you can prepare and eat food while staying clean and dry (these seem like obvious amenities, but they are the exception, rather than the rule). Here I met a hiker from Germany named Earth, taking a rest break..(I ended up leap-frogging with him the remainder of the day and then sheltering with him last night). After that shelter came a nightmare in the form of rock/boulder trail, very precarious footing, especially on the descent, and mentally fatiguing. What a relief to finish that and then come into Pen Mar park, at the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania. I used the restroom there and washed my hands, threw out trash, gathered some water from a drinking fountain, and searched for the advertised vending machine (to no avail, it doesn't exist), then charged my phone a little. I called a local B&B to see if I could stay the night in MD one last time, but they were full. I found that there was trail magic in a cooler, by the AT sign, so helped myself to a banana. I was very tired at this point, and very, very sore. The afternoon was passing quickly, now around 4 o'clock. I needed to resupply, and more importantly I needed to get to Walmart, where I could purchase some shoe inserts to try and help my Plantar fasciitis (tissue on bottom of foot becomes irritated and tight, and moves into the heel area especially, so that it feels bruised at best and like someone is pounding a nail up into your heel with every step at worst)...and also more Aleve, which I found is the only pain reliever that helps. Another hiker named Bonobo arrived at the park, and asked if I wanted to hitch a ride to Walmart with him, and I did, so we headed to the road, after signing the logbook at the Mason - Dixon line (yay, I'm officially North again!). No one picked us up, but then I received a nice text from Lavender: she and Count were finished for the day, had dropped some hikers at Walmart already, and would pick us up too. This saved us over 2 extra miles of walking. We did our shopping, loaded our food bags, spread out in the open just past the check out, then had Subway, in store...although I was a true outlier, eating mine in the game arcade so I could try to get more phone charge at an outlet. Bonobo and I then left, intending to hitch back to the trail, but before we could even try, a man with trail name Blue Samurai pulled over and asked if we needed a ride. He saw our backpacks and offered because he's on a committee trying to promote Waynesboro, PA as a hiker - friendly town.Back on the Trail, we passed up a possible campsite (it was now between 630 and 7pm) because the water wasn't drinkable...so we started up a steep hill, working up a big sweat again. At the top, Bonobo decided to stop and set up his tent. I moved on, because I didn't have enough water to camp overnight and there was none there. Also, I wanted to get to the next shelter, about 4 miles away, to prove to myself that it's ok to hike later into the evening before settling for the night. And that's what I did...arriving just before dark, claiming a space in a shelter (there were a pair of small ones at the campsite), doing chores, and a quick bandana rinse before sleeping, way too tired to journal. And also, way too emotionally spent to journal. This day, more than any other before, had brought me to a very low LOW. The constant intense pain in my foot, combined with loneliness and two very difficult stretches of rock, followed by an unfriendly caretaker at Pen Mar park, and the rushed resupply trip late in the day...to be very honest, I wanted to go home. If a car had stopped in front of me then, and the driver asked if I needed a ride to Ohio, I'm pretty sure I would have climbed in. But I hadn't that choice, so I opted to move forward another day as best I could. For those of you who have had Plantar fasciitis, you understand how every step feels and that it isn't something tha's easily "cured". A few people have already permanently left the Trail this year because of it. I don't want to be next, but if I cannot improve, then I may have to. This is so tough to face.