Date: 2018-05-14
From: James River Footbridge - Glasgow

To: Stealth Tent Site (mile 801.5)
Miles today: 15.5

Donna did her part to give us a nice send-off today. Before we left the hostel she made us some scrambled eggs with ham and toast. She loaded up the three of us hikers in her car and we were back at the trailhead and ready to start at 7:45. The forecast was calling for temperatures in the low 90¢s today in town, so we were eager to get up and over Bluff Mountain as early as possible. It was going to be about a nine mile climb with three big ascents totaling over 3,000 Feet- not a good combo!! My heart was still aching a bit from not being able to see my mom or my kiddos on Mother¢s Day. Even though I am very thankful I had gotten to talk to all of them, it just wasn¢t the same. I had made the mistake of getting on Facebook and seeing all the pictures of my friends celebrating the day with their families and I had already had more than one pity party. When you¢re hiking 8-10 hours a day, you have ALOT of time to think and pray. The latter is obviously a wonderful thing, but the former is not necessarily always such a good thing. A few weeks ago our daughter, who is in her last semester of college, found out she was going to have to have a lump removed. When she met with the surgeon, he assured her it would be an outpatient surgery and that she really just needed someone to drive her home because of the anesthesia. I still wanted to go to be with her and to help out after the surgery. But Next Step thought we should let her decide if she wanted me to come or just keep on hiking. Grammy, ignoring her own serious health concerns, said that she and Granddad would go. And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would have done everything in her power to get there if we would have let her. She is one of the most giving people I know. But she had an amazing example, my Mamaw Rogers!!! Next Step¢s sister, Lisa, also volunteered to go, except that she was going to be in Texas hanging out with our niece while his other sister is on vacation. Lisa is another one of those people that would do anything for you! In the meantime, I was talking to our son and his precious wife about it and without hesitation, she asked if she could go to help out instead. She and our daughter are the same age and she thought it would be a great opportunity for them to get some time to spend together. I decided to leave it up to our daughter because I¢ve ALWAYS been there!!! Even though our kids both live far away they have both always known that if they need me, I will be there. Our daughter thought that it would be great for her to come so that I could continue with our hike since we are trying to finish by Labor Day. I agreed, but it was hard! Ever since we had kids, Next Step had been our main financial support and I¢ve been the main domestic support. Taking care of our family is the thing I love most!!! But still, I thought this was the best decision and I was so proud of our daughter for being so brave and so thankful for our daughter-in-law for stepping in for me! But today, I was questioning my decision. My heart was just aching thinking that I should be there. When I decided to hike the AT with Next Step I never thought that the physical part would be a problem. I knew it would test me (and believe me, it¢s been way tougher than I ever imagined! I never pictured myself hiking through waist high snow drifts or ALL DAY in a freezing rain/sleet storm, and hiking 17 miles, while climbing almost 6000 feet on a day when the temperatures were in the upper 80 degree range¢YOWSA!). But I always thought the biggest struggle would be being unavailable for my family for SIX MONTHS!! That¢s just not how I operate. (And I get as much joy from knowing that I am there when they need me!!) I¢m not looking for more attendees to my pity party, I am just trying to ¢keep it real¢ as to all the things you go through when you¢re thru hiking the trail. So today as we were summiting our second big climb of the day, I had my first good cry of the trip. I¢m not a very emotional person, but it was all just suddenly overwhelming! All I could think of was that I just needed to get out of the woods and get back to civilization where I belong!!! Poor Next Step didn¢t know what was going on. One minute I¢m sweating and groaning as I climbed up the mountain and the next minute I¢m bawling like a baby! He just let me get it all out and then reminded me what the surgeon had said and that our daughter really wanted me to keep doing what I was doing. But he told me that if I wasn¢t going to be okay with it that we¢d get me on a plane tomorrow. He truly is the best!!! He suggested I reach out to our daughter to just make sure she was really okay with me not coming. I did, and once again, she told me that she was in good hands and she knew I would be there in a heartbeat if there were any complications...she was just proud of me and to keep on hiking. I¢m so glad that at least one of us was being mature about the whole thing! So I pulled myself together and kept on hiking! It was honestly just a physically and mentally draining day. One reason we started our thru hike in February, was to put off having to hike in temperatures like we experienced today for as long as possible. It¢s bad enough to just be outside doing nothing when it¢s 90 degrees. But it adds whole new dimension when you add climbing mountains to that equation. We stopped for lunch around 11:30 and enjoyed our Italian subs we had gotten at Scotto¢s after our supper there last night. We finally reached the top of Bluff Mountain but were running out of water. We realized we were going to have to stop in Punchbowl Shelter to filter water even though the shelter was .2 miles downhill off the trail. So while we were there we took off our shoes and rested our feet while we also had a snack. It¢s a good thing we stopped, because we ended up having several more uphill climbs before we reached the spring where we had planned to get our last water of the day and still had to find a place to camp. The guide had mentioned that there were tent sites .2 miles south before Reservoir Road, but we never saw them. But we did see the 800 mile mark for our journey right before we got to the road. We crossed over and started uphill again (are you kidding me?!?! Haven¢t we climbed enough for one day!!) and hiked on about another mile before Next Step spotted the perfect place to set up camp. We could hear thunder in the distance so we thought we better get the tent up before we did our stretching and hiker chores. Fortunately, it only sprinkled for a minute. We didn¢t get to eat until about 8:30, our latest supper yet. We have an early start tomorrow so that we can catch a 2:00 shuttle into Buena Vista for lunch and resupply. I¢m thinking it¢s not going to take either of us very long to get to sleep tonight. Some of those following our journal have commented that we make it sound easy. Next Step says that it¢s never easy, but it¢s always worth it. For now, that¢s still the case, but if that changes, I¢ll re-look at our plan and make sure this is where I¢m supposed to be. In the meantime, I¢ll just keep heading north.HugsWhich WayElevation Data:Ascent - 4,400Descent - 3,940Grade - 10.2Weather:Day - 84 / Sunny Night - 67 / Mostly CloudyOver the Horizon: Shenandoah National Park