Date: 2008-10-17
From: Max Patch

To: Standing Bear Hostel
Miles today: 150.6
Weather: overcast clouds

I'm at Standing Bear Hostel in TN. Tomorrow we enter in to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. As of today I have hiked 1936.7 miles. The Smoky's should take approximately 5 days and after that... Georgia, which should take under one week. Today was short compared to what we have been doing lately (miles hiked). I hiked 13+ miles from Max Patch. There was one brutal incline of 1700ft but most of the hike was downhill. It rained all night last night and all day today. My hammock held up well in the rain. It is never fun packing up in bad weather but I knew that most of the hike was down hill and that made it easier to get the ball rolling. As soon as I put my hiking shoes on my left foot felt cramped.I would like to report that despite the cold and rainy weather that my hike was good. However the cramp in my left foot went from cramp to slightly painful annoyance to excruciating, unbearable pain. What the hell? My feet were fine yesterday, no problems whatsoever. My feet were fine all through the night, I had an excellent nights sleep. So where did things go wrong? I haven't the slightest idea. I had reached the point of excruciating pain less than 5 miles in to the hike. It literally feels like I have a broken foot. When I hit Ground Hog Creek Shelter at 7 miles I took my shoe and sock off to investigate. With the way my foot felt while hiking I had expected to find bruises and inflammation of all colors... but it looked fine. I massaged my foot to isolate the pain. It is coming from the bones just behind my big toe and the next toe. When I attempt to lift my toes it shoots pain all of the way to my knee. I have been hobbling all day. I basically climbed Snowbird Mt. (the 1700ft. climb) with my right leg. I dragged the left and concentrated on not applying pressure to it all day. Going up hill is the worst because I can not use my toes to spring forward. The last 6.8 miles was agonizing. I fell behind the group and took breaks when I needed to.Mango and Grettle caught up today. The group stayed together (relatively) for most of the day. Upon arriving at Standing Bear Cubby and I shared a frozen Degiorno pizza. The hostel is awesome. It's $15 for the night and that includes a bunk, laundry, a hot shower and shuttles in to town. Standing Bear is a farm with old barn style structures.We meet Spoon's mom tomorrow morning. She is so kind as to come out from Knoxville and take care of Check while we hike through the Smoky's. No dogs are allowed in the national park. She will meet us again when we are through the park and return Check to Mango and Grettle. They are super lucky to have Spoon's mom help out. Otherwise they would need to pay big $ for a shuttle and boarding. One of the reasons that I chose not to bring Shea was because she was not allowed in Baxter State Park in ME, the Shannendoah's in VA and the Smoky's in TN/NC.Even after spending the past 4-5 hours with only my socks and Crocks on, my foot is killing me. It looks swollen at this point. There is no way in hell I'm thinking of getting off the trail for it. I was thinking today that it looks like I will finish the last 200 miles the same way that I started the initial 200 miles... hobbled by my left foot. I do hope to God that it gets better.Another south bounder named Philadelphia Greenburg is staying with us tonight. We met him in passing on Max Patch and have crossed paths again. Philadelphia has showed interest in hiking the Smoky's with us. He's a cool guy and fits in well. Philadelphia is a play write an actor and artist. He went to the University of Kentucky (where he is from). We all get along great and I think he would be a positive addition to the crew.~Santana~ "by myself but not alone"