Date: 2021-05-15
From: Front Royal 

To: Stealth campsite 
Miles today: 7.9
Weather: overcast clouds

Woke up this morning about 7:30am. It was hard to leave that soft, warm bed even to go to the bathroom. David left it up to me whether to take a zero day or get back on trail. The little toes on both feet were blistered pretty badly and putting them into boots was really painful. I was able to cut the nail on my right little toe halfway off but the part remaining was causing me a lot of pain. I went and sat in a hot tub to soak my achy muscles and toes. I was then able to get the rest of the nail off. I decided we should go ahead and get back on trail or I might not get back on at all. David and i spent the next 30-45 minutes wrapping blisters and hot spots on our toes. I bandaged the 2 little toes thickly. I also made sure that I left the bootlaces looser by the toe box of each boot, hoping that would give the piggies more room. I had stuffed some of our resupply into reusable bags from the car and forgot to give them back to Kenz. Wasn¢t going to carry them to Maine so I had to leave them there. I was bummed because one bag was a favorite that I got from my sister who works at Wegmans. I¢ll have to hit her up for another one. I also had Kenz bring me my long-sleeved UV shirt. I¢ve already had some sunburn on my arms and back of my neck so now I almost always wear my hat so my face and neck are protected. I put the shirt on and my left arm immediately started itching. I pulled it off and saw my usual summertime buddy - poison ivy! Arghh! I had planned for it, though and pulled out my Rx cream that the doctor had prescribed a few years ago that works wonders. And so the fight begins!We left the motel and walked down to the CVS. I was hoping they carried a particular kind of knee brace. Chippin¢ Away had one on each knee and swore by them. CBS didn¢t have them so we headed to opposite corner to hitch a ride back to the trail. We had waited about 5 minutes or so and saw a car in the turn lane making a U-turn and pull over to pick us up. They were going in the other direction but were glad to take us to the trail. She asked if we had had the vaccine and we both said we were fully covered. >span class="s1"> We got on the trail about 12:40 and started hiking. My toes definitely let me know they were there but I kept going. About 5:45 we came to a tent site. It was pretty large and flat and even had a fire pit. We had just gotten the tent up, I was inflating the sleeping pads and David was starting dinner when a guy came ip the trail towards us and said that he had stashed his camping gear here and would we mind if he took the site below ours. We welcomed him and went back to our dinner and tent prep when another couple guys came up and asked if they could camp here too and that 3 more of their party were coming. The more the merrier! It ended up with us and 6 other guys. They were very nice but definitely weekend campers. They didn¢t know that 9:00pm is hiker midnight and were still gathered around quietly chatting past then. We were pooped though and dozed off. When we had gotten into camp I was aching from the waist down - my quads, my knees, my toes, my right heel. David gave me a couple Aleve and that helped me nod off too. We could hear the traffic from I-66 and, boy, was it loud at times. There was a train too. The car traffic eventually quieted abut the train came through several times. Just enough that I heard it but not enough that it kept me awake.So getting on the trail later and only hiking 5 hours, we were still able to crank out 7.9 miles.