Date: 2009-05-09
From: Doc's Knob Shelter

To: Pearisburg, VA (Holiday Motor Lodge)
Miles today: 8.2
Weather: light rain

I'm writing this at 5:30 in the morning. We have to get up early this morning to get to the Pearisburg Post Office before it closes around noon today. This is a disadvantage to re-supplying by maildrop, but the 1st time it has been an issue for us. We had planned on hiking into Pearisburg yesterday but the terrain and weather did not allow us to maintain a pace to get us there in time. We thought about going a few more miles to get closer and camp - but I'm glad we didn't. It poured rain all night complete with thunder and lightning....and it's still raining. So we are all packed up and ready to go at first light! It's going to be a very wet hike, and very slippery. Should be fun!(written at night) I had a blast this morning. I tried to keep my feet dry as much as possible for about 15 minutes....then there was a "lake" across the A.T.......no where to go but through it. After that, I was a 12-year-old again playing in mud puddles. Yep, we were walking in a thunderstorm complete with lightning and thunder, soaked, and having a blast. Knowing there was a hotel room, shower, and food we didn't have to prepare ourselves made it much more tolerable!!The hiking conditions were fun today and the trail was interesting. We walked along a ridge for the first half of the day and we actually did have a view of the valley below a couple of times. We got to the end of the ridge at a place called "Angel's Rest" and the thunderstorms were forming some more so we saw "gray".When we started our descent we were walking down a very slippery surface but were surrounded by a whole lot of green undergrowth with little white flowers everywhere....don't know what kind....think little white daisies...beautiful. Sorry, couldn't take the camera out today.Well, we checked into the Holiday Motor Lodge, got our Post Office re-supply, got showered, and on the way to Dairy Queen! What a day!!We hike out tomorrow morning for 6 days of hiking, getting to the Daleville area on Friday. Goof's Mom is meeting us there. Goof plans to spend all day Friday with Mom (while we just rest!). Then we're all going to go down to Trail Days in Damascus on Saturday to check that out. Then simply zero-day in Daleville on Sunday. I'll hopefully catch up with the pictures that weekend...got about 250 more on the way when I can get them downloaded!! Plus I'll get descriptions on the ones that are up right now....without descriptions...I know they're not as cool without knowing what there of!Note of health out here. Taking care of the feet is of prime importance. I know it's sounds painfully obvious....that's why I'm so surprised by the number of foot problems out here. One major concern I have right now is keeping my feet as dry as possible....even in the wettest conditions. We have had a couple of hikers out here go down for a couple of days by doing big miles on soaked feet (swamp feet). Our group is doing a pretty good job of getting the boots and socks off during breaks and letting the prune feet dissipate a little bit, or totally, helping to reduce the chance of developing blisters and other problems due to tender skin during swamp feet conditions. So far so good....this break today was a blessing as my feet have had a full day of dry now to get ready to go back out tomorrow for the next stretch.By the way, I'm sitting here at the computer at the Holiday Motor Lodge and I see a Postcard with Peanut's A.T. Katahdin Summit picture on bulletin board...way cool. She was forthcoming with a lot of A.T. advice for me prior to my hike. Very cool!