Date: 2005-04-19
From: About 1 mi. past Hurricane Mtn Shelter

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 19.8
Weather: clear sky

Today would become known as "The Day of the Crocs"It was a nice and cool this morning. Before I got going, I taped up my heels with duct tape and molefoam, but after walking for a bit, I found out that this wasn't going to work. My heels were just hurting too bad. I really didn't know what to do. Town was another good day and a half away at best and I had to walk there to get there. All I could do was trudge along painfully. After a couple of very painful miles, I ran into Kitty Litter and his wife, who had joined him for a few day. They were going south for the time. I told them about my foot problems. Kitty Litter's wife said that she knew someone who hiked barefoot and said I should try the same. I told her I didn't know about that, my feet weren't that tough. I went on my way, but she had my thinking. "What's the next best thing to bare feet?" And of course the answer is, CROCS!! So, once I found a nice place to sit down, I pulled off the trailrunners, duct tape, and moleskin and put on my crocs. Wow, what a difference. I practically flew down the mountain. I was to the first shelter in no time, where I ran into Shadow and Sassy. I told them of our little adventure yesterday. They said that Stick had already informed them, but was taking it a bit harder than I. It got pretty hot after a short break at the shelter. I worked up a pretty good sweat in no time. Shadow and Sassy told me that Stick was just up ahead before they left, but I couldn't catch him all afternoon, even flying along in my crocs. The only bad thing about wearing them is that you feel everything that you step on. Rocks, roots, little birdies, everything. Shadow and Sassy were sitting by a stream for lunch when I caught back up to them. The tree they were under looked very inviting, so I decided it was time for lunch. The shade felt great and I even soaked my feet in the ice cold creek. The rest of the afternoon wasn't too bad at all, it seemed to be all downhill to the shelter. At the shelter, I found a ton of people including Stick, Doc, Darcy, and SweetCheeks. There had to be at least ten more hikers including Buckwheat, who is a trip. Now I was faced with a delimna. Partnership shelter is unquestionably one of the nicest shelters on the entire Appalachian Trail. It sits a mere 1/10 of a mile from the road. At the road, there is the Mount Rogers NRA headquaters with a phone, where you can order pizza. Town is an easy 5 mile hitch for beer and such. Hikers were already on a beer run and Stick was taking orders for pizza. I can reach Atkins tomorrow, only about an 11 mile hike to retrieve my maildrop. But Bland is a different question. It is over 50 miles and this is Tuesday. It would take an extremely hard push to make it by Saturday morning. And that is with good feet. I don't think I'd make it with my trailrunners or my crocs. So, what to do? What to do? I could push on another 4 or 5 miles since it is still early, and hope for the best. Or I could say, forget it and have some pizza and beer and worry about it later. Well, you could say my stomach won that argument. Another feature that makes this shelter so unbelieveably awesome is that it has a hot water shower and sink for laundry. So after a shower, clean clothes, pizza and beer, I was a happy hiker. We made a huge bonfire to end the night. I retired early in hopes of getting a early start for the 50 mile push. The race to Bland is afoot!!