Date: 2003-06-13
From: Laurel Creek Shelter

To: Niday Shelter
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Erin says:I sucked today. I am hurting. I am sitting in the tent right now trying to compose myself enough to walk over to the shelter and socialize. Craig is making dinner... cha cha chile with chile mac and beef. I am hungry. So I will drag my sorry ass from the tent and go over to see him and the other peeps. The last two miles to this shelter were hell. Something is wrong with my feet. The rain is ruining me. I have really bad blisters kicking - I have a cluster of 6 on the outside of my right heel. I also have one on the outside of my left heel. I have one on the bottom of my right big toe. And one on the ridge of callused skin on my left pinkie toe. My feet are so badly pruned right now I feel like they are cracking apart. The balls of my feet feel broken. I think I have crushed all the bones and muscles in there. These shoes are not working. Or is it the rain? I don't know. All I know is that I was hobbling downhill and purposefully drenching my feet in every puddle along the way - just so that the icy stream water would numb my feet for a few seconds. I know this is dumb, but I am in serious pain. I don't feel like walking ever again.Erin says (later):Bless Craig for making me dinner. We'd been doing such high mileage that we would be too tired to cook when we got to the shelter. This is the first hot meal I've had in many hiking days. Really yummy. I wonder if I'm getting enough calories when we don't cook at night and rely on Triscuit sandwiches? Probably not. I've had a few nips of whiskey and it helps a little bit. My feet are horrible! I had to ask Free Radical for extra bandaids because we are running out. I need them for the blisters and for my gashed-up finger. I really need to figure out how to fix my feet. I feel a little bit better knowing that everyone is suffering from blisters and foot pain in this non-stop rain. At least it is not raining right now. Thanks to Craig too for going ahead tonight to get to the shelter and set up the tent. He knew I was hurting badly. And we only did 13.5 miles today. It took me forever. I used to be able to hike at almost 2.5 miles an hour. And now I'm lucky if I can do 1.5. Ugh. This has been one of my crappiest days on the trail. We had to trudge through flooded pastures today. It wasn't raining when we first started hiking, but I swear - as soon as I got to the first pasture it opened up and poured. Craig caught up to me as I was huddled under a tree where two pastures met at a stile. The tree really didn't keep me from getting soaked. It got worse from there. Our feet were completely drenched walking through pasture puddles that I am sure were swimming with cow feces. Craig has the start of an ingrown toenail on his big toe and all the wet and feces were making his toe sting. He wasn't pleased. After dinner tonight, Craig and I hobbled down to the creek near the shelter and did a thorough foot cleaning. He dunked his shoes in the creek to wash them out. They'd still be wet in the morning anyway. We washed our socks out with Mountain Suds. I soaked my feet in the icy water - it felt really good. We are having lower extremity trouble. Craig's shin is still bothering him. No more rain, please?