Date: 2019-04-17
From: Mt. Collins Shelter

To: Pecks Corner Shelter
Miles today: 15.9
Weather: clear sky

Long day! Longest day so far actually! Today we planned to do 16 miles. The people in the shelter all left so early. Hot Sauce woke Prometheus and me up and they were all gone. We joked and told her we ¢didn¢t want to go to school¢ and ¢what did she pack in our lunches¢. Prometheus lay on top of me and it was actually so funny. We were totally like the little kids and Hot Sauce was the mom. We got up and moving eventually and made breakfast. I had oatmeal with dried cherries, which was delicious, but I still wasn¢t that hungry. We packed up and headed out! The terrain was fine for the morning, with some uphill, but mostly down. We got to a Gap with a parking lot and there were several people there doing trail magic! It was my second experience with an official table and chairs setup. I went right for the Little Debbie treats and they said I really fit into my name. They had so many wonderful treats. I grabbed a Little Debbie chocolate peanut butter thing, a hostess cupcake and roll, a banana, a clementine, fudge stripe cookies, and a coke. Can¢t pass up the sweets and soda when it¢s there! We left and after a little bit, arrived at Newfound Gap. Back in the day, this was where I planned on catching my ride to Gatlinburg. It¢s very touristy and has a huge parking lot, so it was packed full of people. And there were bathrooms! But again no water, so no sinks. We saw a sign for the North Carolina/Tennessee border and took a picture with it, but we¢ve been following the border for a while, and will for another 200 miles or so. There was more trail magic here! Omg! This woman had it setup in her trunk and she had a cooler and Gatorade, as well as chips and cookies. I had two bags of Doritos and Gatorade. I know, healthy again haha. This man came over with a massive cinnamon bun and we munched on that too. He said they were sold in Gatlinburg, but I certainly missed that memo! We took pictures next to a monument, I put sunscreen on, and we headed on. Joe had caught up to us even though he had done a zero in Gatlinburg. He was headed for an 18-mile day! It was pretty rough terrain at times, with a fair amount of climbing and descent, but it was gradual. We passed some people and this little girl said to her parents ¢I can smell em¢. A great boost of confidence haha it was pretty funny. I know I smell! I know because most normal humans I pass smell really good, and I know they all didn¢t put perfume on today. They just smell so much better than I do.Hot Sauce takes these things she calls ¢tree breaks¢ and I liked taking those too so I could have some stops in the climbing. I really have terrible breathing out here. I totally breathe through my mouth and I know that¢s not the best way. At home, when I was running, I had trained myself to breathe through my nose and out my mouth, and it worked. But on these uphills, I struggle more. My legs also burn, which sometimes gets hard. I always hated that burn when I rowed crew. I talked with Prometheus a lot today about pain tolerance and fear and all of that. We actually talked about skiing this morning, as we were descending into Newfound Gap. He said that skiing gives you that way of moving that can help with hiking, as you sort of glide your way down. This dang sport seems to help with everything. Lol this winter I¢m going to learn. Making it a goal now! Better balance and movement to come! We also talked about fear factor. I am scared of a lot of things. And I¢m sure you can all see that in my blog. I get scared when there¢s a steep slope and end up covered in mud because I don¢t know how to go down it. I get scared when there are rocky climbs and when the weather is bad. It¢s definitely tough for me sometimes. I have to say, I never grew up doing crazy things because I was always scared, but I wish I had, because you can knock that fear out if you expose yourself to it while young. I literally watched little kids glide down the mountain while I was skiing with my dad and I was so scared. The kids had no fear. I am conquering a lot of fears out here and that¢s really been good for me, but I do think about why those fears are there a lot. I also struggle with pain. I really can¢t stand a lot of pain physically. I¢m sure there is a mental component to it, but I definitely don¢t like to feel pain. That thigh burning is not my fave. I can deal with other pain like my back or feet though. My feet definitely started to ache today and I pushed through it. But it was hard. I¢ve honestly always wondered about things like tattoos. I think they¢re cool, especially if they tell a story, but I would want it to be someplace I could cover it if I got one. I just don¢t think I could ever deal with the pain of getting one. This is so far from where I was when I was younger. I was against tattoos and dying my hair and all of that. And I dyed my hair this summer. I got a lot of ¢post-breakup¢ stereotype crap haha but I seriously just woke up one morning and wanted to do it. I don¢t know, I just felt free and young and wanted to do it. I really wasn¢t thinking, ¢omg I need to be a new person now and go change my hair.¢ I just wanted to do it. This girl from my college that I had had a tricky friendship with dyed her hair two weeks after me and it took all the wind out of my sails. It was a very controlling and unhealthy friendship, and I needed to distance myself. It still felt like she was controlling me though. I couldn¢t even dye my hair without her having to one-up me. And it may have been a total coincidence, but it upset me. I made a long Instagram post because it made me so mad, but I definitely calmed down and tried to focus on myself and my decisions and making myself happy about them. I really loved dying my hair. I felt really pretty and good about myself. And I was really starting to love myself and my body. I was opening myself up to change instead of continuing to be the person who ¢will never do this or that¢. Anyway, I was reflecting on all of this today while I was hiking and it was so good to process it. It was so nice to talk to Prometheus too and have that company and conversation while hiking. I really didn¢t have that for three weeks or so, and it felt good. It made the mileage go by faster. We reached a mountain, Charlies Bunion, or something like that. There was a side trail to the view and we followed it. There was a rock that you could climb out onto for a view and a cool picture. Hot Sauce climbed it so fast! I slowly made my way out onto the rock and Prometheus and Joe took some awesome pictures of me. I climbed back down and Hot Sauce went for a rock that was even steeper. She and Prometheus climbed that, but I stayed down. I was nervous! There¢s that fear again! Prometheus rock climbs a lot at home and has taught it, so he¢s really a pro. We took some funny pics out on that rock before and were joking with each other throughout the day. He¢s great! Another trail magic occurred, third of the day!! Two ladies came up and offered me Starbucks packets, but they couldn¢t find them so they gave me basically all the other food in their pack. They were day hikers headed to Newfound Gap and home today. They gave me a banana, clementine, bars, crackers, and drink packets, and I split it with everyone. We continued on and got to another peak, Laurel Mountain. It was a long climb and my feet were starting to kill me. I was wondering where the dang summit was for a while. There were lots of mini views. It was beautiful and a nice hike, but I was getting pretty tired. We took a lot of pictures and headed down to the shelter. It was a bit of a long downhill and I could feel pain right underneath my toes. A weird place in my opinion, but I still had pain there. My back and shoulders were also hurting, but not as much.Prometheus was so nice and let me hike in front of him. It made me feel like he had my back and was watching out for me, and I really liked that. I have always struggled with being the ¢last¢ or ¢slowest¢ and it felt good to lead for a bit. I remember my counselors doing that on my Overland trips. We always had a ¢leader of the day¢. Prometheus is a great leader/counselor/helper/teacher! He¢s going to be a great dad someday if he has kids. We got to the shelter sign and it was again another .3 off trail! Ugh these shelters! Why! It was late and we were wiped and the shelter was full. We found that out while getting water before heading down. We got down to the shelter and set up. My feet were killing me, and I took off my shoes and realized how bad it was. Sorry for those easily grossed out, but the skin was gone under and in between my toes and it was raw. I knew I had a situation, but hobbled over to have dinner after setting up my tent. I saw Hermione and Green Slouch again, which was awesome! They asked me how I was and I complained a bit about my feet and a woman inside heard me. She came out and said she was a registered nurse. She gave me some wipes and was very nice. She took a look at my foot and was concerned. She told me it could get infected and would take me off trail. I definitely didn¢t want to hear that. She told me to air my feet out and so did Hot Sauce, so I sat there with no socks for a bit and wiped my foot. I was cold. I couldn¢t finish my dinner because I wasn¢t hungry enough and it was really getting dark. I packed up my bag and heaved it onto the filled cables. I headed to my tent and put on very thin liners, as suggested by Hot Sauce. Here¢s hoping my feet heal. What a long day! A lot of reflecting and processing today! And a lot of company and fun and trail magic too! Longest day so far! Woot woot!Little Debbie