Date: 2015-06-15
To: Pearisburg, Virginia
Miles today: 0.0

Well, some of you following the glorious Adventures of the Indomitable BonBon, have seen guest book entries from my daughter and St. James. They each mentioned that I am giving this hiking thing another try. Or you may have been following GrandBob's journal. There is much about being home that I really loved, but my heart was somewhere out on the Appalachian Trail. I posted a couple of pictures of a welcome back party that some friends gave; they plan to save them in case I make it all the way so that we can have party number two. I am totally blessed to live in a place with so many caring people. My foot kept getting better and better, and, while it can't be cured without drastic measures, it is pretty much pain free right now. The "Catch 22" is that the only way to relieve ball of foot pain seems to cause arch pain. But, how will I know I can hike, unless I try?So, I have taken a rather convoluted approach to returning to the trail. First of all I drove from home in Florida to Franklin, North Carolina. There I sought out the expertise in hiking shoe fitting of Rob, the guru of all hiking footwear at Outdoor 76. Apparently I have the feet of a 16-year-old as opposed to a 60-year-old. Who knew? That evaluation is based on whether your foot is neutral versus pronating or supinating, as well as foot strength. My feet are that of an old lady when it comes to pain in the balls of my feet! So after a couple of hours of measuring and trying on shoes, I ended up with a new pair of Montrail trail runners. They are a bit heavier than many of the trail runners but lighter than most boots. The doc wanted me to get a diabetic inserts, Rob didn't feel it would be necessary. However, being a bit superstitious, I'm carrying them with me just in case. (Or for those fans of Love Actually, "just in cases.")From Franklin I drove west to Nashville to spend a week with my daughter son-in-law and all of the grandchildren. I definitely got my baby fix and had a blast in the process.St. James had to work over the weekend, but flew up Saturday night so he could get his grandchild fix as well. This morning, Monday, he drove me to Chattanooga where I met up with GrandBob. If you remember, he is a neighbor of mine and had been at the Black bear resort getting ready to head home after cutting his section hike short earlier. He thinks part of the reason was the lack of the camaraderie on the trail, as many of the folks in our age bracket were already farther north, and the 20-somethings that he met along the way were hiking long days, so he never saw them more than once or twice.Bob drove us to Pearisburg Virginia, and we're staying in nearby Narrows. This is where he had gotten off the trail, and it didn't make sense for him to have to repeat sections he had already done. So at some point I'll need to come back and hike the section from Pearisburg south to Wilbur dam in Tennessee.Tonight will head out and get some dinner, and hopefully maybe a beer, and be ready to start hiking in the morning. Our goal is to keep our day short. I think tomorrow we are at just under 8 miles. Neither one of us really enjoyed hiking the long days, and as we are not opposed to flip-flopping, we can hike north for some time and then, if we want, head up to New England to finish. I thought long and hard about rejoining my good friend and original hiking companion BonBon in the Shenandoah. However, I have been not hiking for a month, and she has been building up strength all that time. She has done some 20 mile days, and I'm not sure my feet really will ever be up to that. I think a big part of the problem I had hiking the last time, is that I didn't really hike my own hike. This had nothing to do with BonBon or No Spring Chicken and everything to do with my having preconceived expectations that I needed to hike high mile days in order to do a northbound hike to Katahdin. Even though I said I would be willing to flip-flop, I really thought that I should be hiking those long miles, because it seems that everyone else did. In my heart of hearts, after we split up to do the Smokies, I really hoped that I would be able to sync back up with BonBon if I pushed it, and that never was going to happen with my feet.Bob and I initially were hoping that NSC would also join us, but she decided that she wasn't ready to go back.So soon we will be off to dinner, and hopefully get a burger and a beer and then get some good shut eye and readiness to hike out again tomorrow. Please wish me luck, I think I'm going to need it."Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.her secret is patience."Ralph Waldo Emerson