Date: 2004-07-13
From: Route 501 Shelter

To: Port Clinton, PA
Miles today: 23.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was a ¢Put your head down and put one foot in front of the other kind of day.¢ And that¢s just exactly what I did. Up at 6:15 and on the trail at 7:30. At 5:45, just 10 hours and 15 minutes after I started out, I walked into Port Clinton, 23.7 miles further up the trail from where I started. If you count the distance from the Route 501 Shelter to the Trail, plus the trip to/from the Black Swarta Spring for water at lunchtime and then my meanderings through Port Clinton. I¢ve got to be very close to have walked 25 miles for the day¢not too shabby for an ¢older hiker¢ like me!But, I¢m afraid there¢s a price to be paid for having have covered all this distance today because my feet are killing me. The problem wasn¢t the distance per se, though. When I started out this morning my boots were still wet from yesterday. (I passed a local lady out for nature walk today and she informed me that yesterday they received 6¢ of rainfall in a 10 hour period! So, see, I wasn¢t kidding about having the shower set on ¢monsoon¢ during your simulated day on the trail yesterday, was I?!)MY wet boots combined with the long distance weren¢t necessarily the root cause of my sore feet either because when I started out this morning I was sporting a pair of clean, dry socks that I had saved for just such an occasion. Clean, dry socks are one of the true luxuries on the Trail, especially after a day like yesterday! The problem with my feet began about mid-morning when the AT turned first into a drainage sluiceway, then into a stream, then a small river, and soon thereafter into a lake, and eventually into a swamp. For that three-mile section, the most valuable piece of gear would have been a pair of water wings! All this water was runoff from yesterday¢s deluge. Needless to say, in spite of my best efforts to keep my feet dry, there was no way to do so and once my socks were wet, my feet, already tender from yesterday¢s ordeal, began to slide against the wet socks and ¢ voila! -- Hot spots and/or blisters and pain.Even with my collateral foot damage, though, I feel good about what I did today. While the terrain was about as benign as can be found on the AT (i.e. flat!), the footing was about as difficult as it comes. This was no cakewalk. I would estimate that 2 out of every 3 steps was destined to land on a rock (one of those hard, ¢point-y¢ things in the bottom of your bathtub, remember?) making 23.7of the 25 miles I covered today the ¢real deal.¢ Upon arriving in Port Clinton I went to the local outfitter and from there to ¢Fred¢s house¢ on Main Street, having been told that he would probably give me a lift down to the Microhotel at I-78. (The local hotel was surprisingly sold out tonight and the Microhotel is next to the Cracker Barrel restaurant where Barb is going to pick me up tomorrow en route to NYC.) Since Fred was not home (as several of his helpful neighbors pointed out as I stood on his porch ringing his doorbell and wringing out my sopping socks). I headed for the Port Clinton Hotel to find out when the bus to I-78 comes through town. I decided to check out the Microhotel for a room.As I wandered through town, I ran into ¢Mountain Squid¢ who was staying at the Pavilion on the town green (which is available to Thru Hikers for overnight camping if they don¢t want to stay in the town¢s ¢Jailhouse Hostel¢ which offers a free bunk and shower on a first come, first serve basis. It is in the basement of the town hall and used to be the local lock-up.But for me, tonight is a night for a real bed and pub food at the Microhotel. Having caught up with Fred, I¢m now at the Microhotel across from Cabela¢s. I¢ve had a hot shower, and I¢m feeling pretty good. My feet aren¢t screaming the way they were when I first came off the mountain. I¢m just as glad, though, not to be hiking for a few days to let them recuperate.Tomorrow I¢ll be back in NYC where, except for a couple of business trips to the Midwest and some personal travel to Barb¢s farm in PA. I¢ll remain until the first of August when I hopefully will get back to my AT adventures for an entire month. I¢ve covered about 540 miles of the Trail so far and I¢d like to get in another 500 miles if at all possible to put me close to half-way finished before the end of this, my first year of hiking.So, stay tuned for more of ¢Bumpo¢s Section Hiker¢s Saga¢ coming soon to a computer screen near you!