Date: 2015-03-31
From: Indian Grave Gap

To: Clyde Smith Shelter
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: clear sky

Started off today with Fresh Grounds famous pancakes- made with bananas, nuts, choc chips. I had 4, and added fruit, whipped cream, syrup, and butter. I also had something called skillet which was made with eggs and potato and other stuff. I also had tea and chocolate milk. Fresh Ground also made me a little package of tea with Nido (powdered milk) and sugar, so I can properly make tea when I'm out on the trail. He really thinks of everything, and I cannot over emphasise how generous he is towards everyone. So I left the Leap Frog cafe about 8.30, feeling very full. The sun was shining so I quickly shed my layers and got sunburnt. I definitely need to get a higher factor sunscreen. My tan/burn likes look silly already, but it's also hard to tell if it's a tan or just dirt. It's really remarkable how much the weather can differ here in just a couple days. It was also a bit windy, and got much windier towards the end of the day. The breeze was appreciated about midday when it felt like I was melting a bit, and I had to roll up my trousers and sleeves. The climb was a bit strenuous in the first half of the day, and my knees really ached. At lunchtime I took 2 ibuprofen for the first time in a while. Although the hike after lunch was relatively tame, I still managed to get new blisters on both heels. I long ago gave up counting how many blisters I have had. I guess the liners can only do so much. I am very seriously considering replacing my boots with trail runners in Damascus, but I'm afraid I will have even more blisters when I break them in. In good physical related news though, Brightside's new pack has made a huge difference to the marks on her hips and they are recovering well. Now she just has to try to resolve the endless chafing problem, which I fortunately have yet to encounter. There was also quite a bit of variety in the terrain today. We had a section on the balds, which had nice views, and a section through a pine forest which was different. At times it was a little creepy and confusing because it was dense and the trail was harder to follow, but fortunately there were a lot of white blazes to guide the way. After lunchtime, the trail was like walking through Georgia again. A lot of winding around and gentle ups and downs. Lots of looking at the same kind of trail of dead leaves and bare trees. Today I listened to the British History podcast again, and then music for a while. I spend long stretches of time by myself on the trail, and it gives me a lot of time to think about everything. This afternoon I was thinking about how incredibly lucky I am to be able to be here on the trail. Even with the horribly cold days/nights, the miserable rain, the many blisters and other pains, I've been having a fantastic experience so far. I can easily say that already this has been one of the best decisions of my life, and I am still so happy to be out here. I don't know whether I will still feel the same in a month or a week, but for now I'm really appreciating the trail. When I finally reached the shelter, it was about 4.15pm. Laughtrack, Brightside, Dopey, Chef and Frodo were already there and had plans to continue on to the next shelter on Roan Mountain, 8.4 miles away. I sat down for a few minutes and decided that I could not go on. My feet were throbbing from the old and new blisters, and I knew it would take me a long time to do just 8.4 miles. I didn't want to have to do at least 4 more hours of hiking before I could have dinner and sleep. I told Brightside that she was free to go ahead, and I would catch up with her later on. She contemplated for a while, but ended up staying. The others left. She said that part of the reason was the wind picking up- the shelter on top of the mountain would definitely be very cold, and she had no desire to be cold ever again. In the shelter, we were joined by Ethan (now named Cruise), Tropicana, Fireball (who bought the pizza yesterday), and Second Guess. Tomorrow we have to hike over Roan mountain, but after that I think the trail has a lot less climbs all the way to Virginia. We don't know how far to go tomorrow yet. We have plans to get up extra early to get a good view on Roan, but we'll see how that works out. There is a shelter at about 15 miles that holds 20 people and is a converted barn, so we might stay there, or if it's dry then we can camp further on. At the moment, doing about 20 miles or a bit less feels good for me (and my super heavy pack). The only good thing about having a super heavy pack is that I know most of the weight is food. So the solution is simple. I just need to eat all the food. Funnily enough, Brightside realised today that she did not actually have as much food as she thought, so I gave her back some of the snacks she had given to me in Erwin- the ones that I hadn't already eaten, anyway. Next time she should try to figure this out before I carry it more than 25 miles.