Date: 2019-04-18
From: Pecks Corner Shelter

To: Tri-Corner Knob Shelter
Miles today: 5.2

Today offered a different kind of trail magic! Prometheus and Hot Sauce were the ultimate saviors. I woke up to Prometheus lightly shaking my tent and I felt absolutely wiped. 16 miles just drained me and no amount of sleep seemed to help. I¢ve been known to go to sleep pretty late and then sleep in pretty late, but my schedule definitely has changed on the trail. I¢m also a very deep sleeper, which has its pros and cons. It means I can sleep through snoring if I am fully asleep before it starts, but it also means I sleep through alarms. I got up when Prometheus came over and slowly started to get my stuff together. He ended up tenting further away from the shelter, so I couldn¢t see his tent from where I was. I was hoping he and Hot Sauce were taking their time too. My foot hurt quite a bit and was annoying to walk on. I packed up my stuff in a heap inside my bag because Prometheus said he wanted to do a shakedown. I walked up to his tent area. He has a super nice tent. It¢s 3 pounds, but really spacious and nice. He and Hot Sauce were sitting in front of it eating breakfast. I plopped my stuff down. Prometheus came over to look at my foot. He used my bandana that I got in Franklin to rest my foot on his leg so he could see. I cleaned my feet off with wipes and he gave me this tea tree oil to rub on them. He said it would have vitamins for the raw part of my feet. I aired them out for a while. Prometheus said I was on the road to Trench Foot, which is essentially when there is too much moisture and the skin rots away. I know, it¢s gross, and I¢m sorry to my readers. But it was really happening to my feet. I have leather boots that don¢t breathe at all, and I was wearing liners and Darn Tough socks together. You should really take your shoes and socks off at least once during the day, or at night when you get to camp. My issue is just being wiped. I would call it laziness, but no part of hiking 16 miles is lazy. There is a lot to do when you get to camp and it is almost like chores after a long work day. But the issue is that my ¢work day¢ is all physical, and those chores are too. To me the idea of walking .4 down to the water source and soaking my feet and then coming back up and filtering water, hanging my food bag, and setting my tent up, is just tiring and time consuming. I haven¢t been washing my feet at camp, but I also haven¢t been taking my socks off every day. I think I¢ve come around more to the idea of the camp chores, and once I realized how bad my feet were, I woke up and knew I needed to make time for these chores, even if they annoy me after a long day. The nurse last night said it would take me off trail and I don¢t want that. At home, my hygiene is so important to me, but I guess since I can¢t do most of the things I¢d like to, like shower, I just gave up on it all. Hygiene out here actually needs to be more important than it was at home or I¢m going to get injured and sick and be taken off trail. I am going to switch shoes as well at some point. I started off with boots, as the REI staff felt they would give my feet the padding they¢d need to get used to long hiking days and tough terrain. I purchased a pair of Altra trail runners as well and they are very light and breathable, but don¢t have the same kind of padding and protection. They¢re basically sneakers. I think I¢ll try to get another couple of hundred miles out of my boots and then make the switch. I also have very wide feet, and although I¢ve always sort of known that, I officially found out when I was shopping for shoes at REI. They measured my feet and were kind of shocked about the width. They put me in a men¢s wide shoe. Honestly, I¢ve loved my boots. I tied them pretty tight at the beginning because they were big, but my feet totally swelled into them and now they fit well. I needed to loosen the laces now and Prometheus pointed that out and helped me do that. I think they work perfectly now with the laces loosened and my new approach to foot care. Anyway, back to this morning¢s activities! There was a light breeze which made it chilly, despite the warm temperatures today. Hot Sauce went to work on my pack. She put a bunch of stuff in a pile that she claimed I would not need, and she repacked my pack. It was amazing how she was able to save space and fit things differently. The pile of things I didn¢t need wasn¢t huge, but she put it all into the day pack that came with my pack and wrapped it up. I have never used that day pack, and I don¢t feel like I will right now, even though it¢s nice to have. There is also something called the pack brain, or the flap that goes over the whole pack, and she took that off too. She fit my tent in the bottom, loose, and then fit my food bag in sideways to even out the weight. My pack looked great. I was apprehensive about giving stuff away. I¢ve struggled with this for a while until this fall, when I purged my room and threw so much stuff away. If it doesn¢t bring you joy or use, it is just stuff. I enjoyed reminiscing and going through it all, but I let it all go. I was ready to do the same here, but in the woods I couldn¢t get rid of anything. I would send the day pack and the rest home with my parents in town. I unpacked my bag so I could see what Hot Sauce did and practice packing it myself, and because I needed to take my food bag out to have breakfast. Prometheus put KT tape on my feet. There were scabs from what appeared to be my feet rubbing against my shoes around the ankle. He put the tape on that so it wouldn¢t get worse. He said to let my feet breathe today rather than covering the raw skin with a bandaid or tape, so I put just one pair of my Darn Tough socks on, without liners. Everyone packed up and I put my pack on to test the new feel of it, and we headed off.Because of my shakedown and feet, we had a slow morning. Hot Sauce also seemed a little hesitant to hike today. Everybody seemed tired and slow going. We were originally going to hike 13 miles, but we decided to hike 5 to the nearest shelter. It would help my feet heal, help me get adjusted to the pack feel, and help everyone rest up a bit from that long day. We walked out of the shelter trail and stopped for water (Prometheus was very kind and got it for me). When I got to the top, I saw everyone! It was awesome!! Naners, Red Wiggler, Mountain Laurel and Chad, Lexi, Honey Buns, and a few others I didn¢t know. I was so excited to see them all! They had started hiking earlier in the day and this was their lunch break. We were all headed to the same shelter, and there was a bit of a concern because it was going to rain tomorrow and it might be packed. We headed on and were passed at different points by Honey Buns and Lexi, as well as Naners and the people she was with. I also saw Ringer and I was so so happy! He¢s just an angel man. His knee is doing well and he¢s been pressing on like a champ. He was going to do a 20-mile day! Holy cow! Also, I can¢t help it, I do want to share how he got his name. He told a story about when he was younger and tried to fit donuts on a certain body part... he claims he fit two and they were eclairs. Haha. I¢m sorry, I just love this guy. Hot Sauce and I took our time because we were both just wiped and not really feeling the hiking today. Prometheus hiked on and got to the shelter. At the time he arrived, it was full and the tent sites were too. People started to leave though, as they realized they could make it to the next shelter by dark and be closer to exiting the Smokey¢s in the storm. When they left, we arrived and snagged their spots. Great timing! It meant we wouldn¢t have to pack up a wet tent tomorrow. We were hoping no section hikers would come and kick us out. I wore Prometheus¢ flip flops and changed into my sleep clothes. It was getting very crowded and people were all over the shelter and tent areas. I want to say 50-70 people were there. We stayed inside the shelter to cook because there was literally no room to cook outside. I made a Mountain House meal, but really couldn¢t finish it. We didn¢t hike very far today and I wasn¢t very hungry. I had no service and was getting very anxious about plans with my parents tomorrow. I walked up the shelter trail a bit and got some service, but my parents were at dinner so I waited a bit, but still didn¢t know the exact plan. I told my mom to plan for the worst weather-wise tomorrow and just come in the late afternoon. Prometheus helped me hang my food bag and I got into my sleeping bag with some whiskey. Very much needed with my anxiety about the weather and meeting up with my parents tomorrow. We also had a 15.5-mile day planned, which added to the anxiety. Hopefully it all goes well!Song of the day: ¢Takin¢ it to the Streets¢ by The Doobie Brothers. I listened to music again today. I¢ve had a little break while hiking with others and having conversations. I love this song and it was such a jam on the sunny day.Little Debbie