Date: 2006-05-23
From: Front Royal

To: Gravel Spring Hut
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: clear sky

When we last saw our heroes.....haha..well the last time I wrote we were at Skyland Road shacking up with two Jersey folk like ourselves. (Mom filled in the last few days the best she could) Well the morning we left I thought my ankle was going to be OK to make it the 22 or so miles we had to go. Actually, I somehow convinced myself of it despite the blue and purple hue it was giving off. And, I was fine and determined the first few miles, nothing was going to stop me. But, as the miles went on my leg became more and more blue and my calf was the size of my ankle and the foot was too fat for my shoe. A mile turned into an hour process. Every placement of the foot had to be carefully monitored. There were too many rocks.Swansons finally took it upon himself to tell me I was done and we were not going any further. I thought about arguing with him but it hurt so badly I actually couldn't argue. It took us two hours to get off the damn mountain. It was time for the ER.So we got down to the gap finally and found a wonderful glorious pay phone and called my parents. We called them to let them know we were not going to make it to the original place they wanted to pick us up at. As I was on the phone a wonderful woman walked by and saw my eyes full of tears. We didn't even have to ask for a ride after that.   She didn't even ask where but she ws taking us there. Then, when she saw my black and blue calf and ankle she was going to find the hospital even though she had no clue where it was.She was my angel. She found us the Luray Hospital and wished us well. What a wonderful woman she was!Another amazing thing that those of you from Jersey will appreciate was that I was in the ER for about 2 minutes and they took me in. In Jersey it would have been about 5 hours. The nurses all had a good laugh when they found out I had walked 26 miles in two days on the bruised and battered mess of an ankle. But, thankfully, it was not broken or fractured in any way. The Doc said a couple of days off it and lots of ice. He also gave me an air cast which has been awesome for hiking. It keeps my ankle from rolling!!Luckily, the two day off requirement came just in time for the parents to visit, and Swansons and I had an excuse to lay low and heal up.It was a great time having my Mom and Dad out here with me. And Swansons Mom and two brothers as well. We got some great quality time with them, downed lots of marguaritas and celebrated Swansons 23rd birthday with wonderful Mexican food.Our parents slack packed us yesterday and my parents did a little bit of trail magic so that they could meet other thru-hikers.Along the way, we also picked up Granite and Tofurkey and they spent some time with our familes before hiking out of Front Royal. We were happy to see our friends again and hopefully will be catching up with them soon, when this freakin ankle heals!Swansons and I bought a two man tent to share so that we lighten our packs a little. It was really pointless for us to each have a one person, and also we switched to our summer sleeping bags, which I think in total has cut my pack weight down about 10 pounds. Freakin' awesome!!We had a few last burgers at Elkswallow with my parents before hiking back our into our home for now. Only about 5 miles for today. We got a late afternoon start and I wanted to go easy on the ankle. We are going to eat dinner then try out our new tent even though the shelter is empty. We can't by a new home then not stay in it!