Date: 2007-05-03
From: Hogback Ridge Shelter, NC

To: Sam's Gap, NC
Miles today: 2.4

Well, success once again last nite with no ccf pad, bag as a quilt, and onlywearing my thermals and knit cap. Temps got down to 58. It sprinkled just alittle, but not enough to make a difference.I'm not sure how Persistent "told" this story, and I know she did, but I tried"Yogi-ing" last nite, and did a poor job of it, but it was still hilarious. Yogi-ing is when thru hikers kind of manage to talk people (usually day hikersor in my case a section hiker) into giving them food, like Yogi the bear. (Iknow, how pathetic huh? LOL)So picture it (like Sophia says on Golden Girls), we've been resting all day(which means you have a lot of time to think about the food you'd like to beeating), and we ate our dinner at 5:30 p.m. We were determined to get our foodhung BEFORE it got dark for a change. LOLScout had built this great fire so Persistent and I decided to leave our ravineand walk up to the shelter to be social for a change. Hey, we had the energyfor once! LOLWe were up there with Scout, Bear Killer, Take It Easy, Yellow Jacket, HalfPint, and Almost Lucky, and 2 others I don't know. We all sat around and talkedabout how much this section from Hot Springs was kicking our butts. In themeantime, Almost Lucky made his dinner right next to me, and that's all it took. My stomach was growling and grumbling, and I was SO hungry. Well, I had noticed 2 small cans of Pringles laying on the table. I saw 1 guyjust grab "a" Pringle, and I knew if those had been his, he would have eatinthem all. Well, the evening goes on, and it is almost 9:00 p.m., and everyoneis turning in. Scout (section hiker) was sitting there, and I said, "Geez, whois bold enough to leave Pringles laying around with a bunch of hungry hikersaround? (side note, I really had no idea who they belonged to, but everyoneelse, who were thru-hikers, was in bed) Scout goes, "Oh, those were my dad's,but you can have them, he said he didn't want anymore." So in the "appropriate" Yogi-ing fashion I say, "Oh, no man, I couldn't eat yourfood." (In the meantime, my hand is halfway to the can! LOL) Scout said, "Noreally, it's fine, he said anyone could have them."Ok, that was all I needed to hear. Within 15 seconds, I had DEVOURED the restof this miniature can of Pringles. What flavor were they you ask? No clue, Idon't think my brain had time to register the taste. LOLI then proceeded to place the can back on the table, and after some moresocializing, we all went to bed. Well, about 10 min. later, (Persistent and Iwere already in our respective tent\hammock) we see a headlamp coming towardsour area and hear Scout say, "Hey, are you 2 still awake?" Persistent answers,"Yes." Scout goes, "Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't know that can of Pringles was empty, so Ibrought Certain another one, do you want it?" Ok, so I'm laying in my hammock with a decision to make. Do I:a. Answer, and act like the can was empty and accept MORE Pringles on falseinformationb. Answer, and admit that I had indeed eatin the rest, but ate them so fast andravenously that I really couldn't qualify as being "civilized" at that momentc. Remain silent, pretend I was asleep, and let it end thereWell, I chose C. (the cowardly option). In the meantime, Persistent is in themiddle of this, and after a few moments of (my) silence, all I hear isPersistent saying, "Umm, well, I think the can is empty because she ate themall."Ok, that was all it took, I bursted out in uncontrollable laughter, matter offact, we all did. Scout didn't even see me eat the Pringles, and he was sweetenough to walk all the way down and offer me more! I was a bit embarassed thatI had consumed the last can in such an animalistic fashion, so I declined takinghis Pringles this time. It was the right thing to do, because we knew we wereprobably hiking into town the next day, and they were not. Both Persistent and I fell asleep to the sounds of a rumbling and hungrystomachs. LOLSo about today, got up @ 7:30 a.m., and rubbed my foot. I told Persistent itfelt a lot better, so it was a go for hiking the 2.4 into town. I really don't understand why I can be ready to hike in 1 hour on town days, butnot on hiking days, but we ere off by 8:30 a.m. I was being careful with myfoot, but it didn't take long before I realizd it really wasn't better. Damn.I tried taking my insole out (which was pressing on my arch) and that didn'twork. Eventually, I just put my crocs on and hiked in them. I still had footpain though.We had met Bearfoot, a young guy who was also interested in getting to town, sowe told him he could join us when we tried hitching.We passed a couple of day hikers on our way down. It took us about an hour toget to the road crossing. We had 2 choices for hitching into Erwin from Sam'sGap on highway 23 (which we had seen 1 car on going the wrong way), or get up toI-23, which had tons of traffic and a semi-truck inspection pull-off area.The 3 of us talked and decided to use 3 pieces of small paper and write out"ERWIN" in big letters on the paper. We then climbed up to the interstate via abridge overpass and walked down to the space between the interstate and thetruck inspection exit lane. We figured this would give us twice the chance ofgetting a ride. LOLSo the 3 of us are thumbing it, holding our little sign, and getting ZEROresponses. It was hilarious and sad at the same time Bearfoot said he thoughtit might be illegal for us to be trying to hitch on an interstate. I figured ifit was, at least the cop hauling us off would probably be taking us to Erwin'sjail! LOLWe tried for 45 minutes, and nobody would stop, and there was a storm headingin! Finally, we saw in the distance, the two day hikers coming down the trail,so Bearfoot ran back down the overpass, caught them and told them he had 2ladies with hurt feet and we needed to get to Erwin. Persistent's foot is stillnot "right" either. Well, it worked, Bearfoot ran back up and gave us thethumbs up.We go down and there's Scout and Bear Killer too! (guess I should have takenthose Pringles afterall LOL) We all piled into Lou's truck. Lou and John arebuddies and section hikers who live in the area. They were super nice andoffered to take us all wherever we wanted to go.John asked where my foot hurt, and when I told him, both Lou and him immediatelysaid Plantar Faciitis. That does not make me happy. Well, we got dropped offat the Super 8 in Erwin, TN. We tried to give them some $ but they wouldn'taccept it.So now it was all about getting clean and EATING! After showers, we decided togo to McDonalds, where I ate 2 hamburgers, 2 crispy chicken snackwraps, a mediumfry, Oreo McFlurry and 2 cups of Dr. Pepper. I have NEVER eaten that much @Mcdonalds in my life! LOLThen it was off to the laundrymat, where we ran into Bear Killer, Scout andPyro. We all had a great time talking, and then Persistent and I decided to hitthe P.O. while we were close by. She had 4 (FOUR!!!) boxes waiting for her!! It was like Christmas watching her with all her packages! I had 1 box, but itreally didn't count since I had mailed it to myself from Hot Springs! LOLWe met back @ the laundry where the Super 8 was coming to get us all. Goodthing, a HUGE thunder\lightening storm was rolling through. All I could thinkabout was all the hikers out on the mountains in the lightening. It's reallyour biggest danger out here.Persistent's mom and dad had sent her a box of all kinds of goodies, and said Icould have some too! THANKS Phil and Danielle!!Then I got on the internet to see what this Plantar Faciitis was about.Unfortunately, what I've read sounds like my symptoms exactly. I was not at allencouraged about the treatment options. Basically, it sounds like I'm going tohave to learn how to deal with pain. Persistent had realized yesterday that we are in a good place to not only restour gimpy feet toorrow, but Ms. Janet (who is infamous and who has a hostelhere) is great about slackpacking hikers all over the place. We think we aregoing to take advantage of this, because it means hiking with day packs (wayless weight) and we are hoping to try to get a few more miles under our belts sowe can stop stressing about the fact that it took us almost 2 months to go alittle over 300 miles!But, tomorrow is more rest, icepacks, stretching my foot, and ibuprofen. Notexactly what I'd like to be doing. Ms. Janet swung by the Motel 8, so we wentout to talk to her. I told her what was going on with my foot and she told me Ishould stay off it and stretch. She also told me the name of a podiatrist thathas part-time hours here, so I think I'll try to go see the doc if he's intomorrow. Because I did not start feeling pain until 2 days ago (which 1 ofthose I did not hike), I'm hoping I did not aggravate it too much and maybethere are some options. I REFUSE to end my hike if there is anyway I can managethe pain and self-treat everyday.Ahh! We just can't seem to get any momentum. If it's not a snowstorm, it's ahead cold, or it's hurt feet! God! I just want to freakin hike!!!Dinner tonight was provided by Ducksoup, who said he'd buy Persistent and Idinner if we met up in Erwin. Just so happen he and Pyro are @ the Super 8, sohe had pizza delivered and we all sat in the lobby and ate. Good times w\lotsof laughing. Well, it is way late. Enough boring town blabbing. Everyone send healingthoughts and energy our way so we can get back out there and do what we came outhere to do....hike the AT.~Certain