Date: 2011-04-28
From: Daleville,VA

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Hey again!I am trying to post more, but posting requires a town and towns require me to spend money and I always spend more than I mean to... funny how that works out. Things since Daleville have been awesome as far as mentally enjoying myself physically things have not been so good. I seem to have developed shin splints and because I keep hiking (yes, I know I should rest, but I just get so antys!) they haven't been getting better... I can make it through the day with a good dose of my good friend IB, but that just masks the pain it doesn't solve the problem. I have tried to pull some shorter days, but I just feel like such a bum when I do that, but i know its what I must do. We left Daleville on Easter after the service and a quick lunch at Wendy's, and hiked about 5 miles to the first shelter outside of town. This is when the shin pain really kicked in, they had been feeling off since before Catawba, but now the feeling wasn't off it was pain. Never the less I made it to the shelter with plenty of day left to bum around and give my legs a break, which they clearly need. (I haven't zeroed since Damascus, correlation? I think so.)The next day headed out hoping for the best, but I realized the pain was probably going to be here for a while, so upon arriving at the shelter just past the one I stayed at I decided I need to have a short day. I also cried a little not, because of the pain, but because I didn't know what I was going to do. I really enjoy the people I am hiking with and I don't want to lose them. I also don't want to lose the current schedule I have for myself. Mostly I was just mad a my body for being "weak" and failing me. Even though I have been asking a lot from it, maybe even too much... Anyways we pulled a short 13 mile day and spent the rest of the afternoon pulling the legs of the other hikers that showed up. I was so fun! We also came up with the brilliant plan to night hike as to avoid some of the humidity, or so we thought. It turned out to be a super humid night... sweating at 3 am? Really??? The idea was to only hike 13 miles again, but when I looked at the book after we had already stared I realised that if we did 13 miles that day the nest day we would either have to do 10 miles or 22.7. The 10 mile day seemed too short and the 22 mile day isn't the rest my shins needed... So we decided to hike to the shelter past the 13 mile one in order to have an 18 mile day. Not exactly restful... but we did take our sweet time having done the night hiking we had plenty of day to kill. So we did. When we got to The Jenning Creek road crossing we decided to try for a hitch inorder to get to the camp ground a mile or so down the road. I got us a hitch which was a feat, because the road was pretty dead we saw two cars. One as we were coming down to the road and the other was the one we got a ride from. He was a super nice guy, with a really small car with all of us in there it really did look and smell like the circus was coming to town. He drove us all the way to the camp store only to find it closed with a hours sign that said "Monday-Thursday- Opened by chance." By chance?! That is no way to run a business... Well I'm telling you this guy was the best guy ever he offered to take us to the gas station down the road. Mind you this was the gas station he had just passed and not only that he was coming to the area to fish and hadn't even started yet! SO we basically ate everything we could find at the Shell and it was beautiful! He let us hang out at the station for a while eating and just talking. It was nice and very relaxing. Finally it was time for him to take us back and for us to continue on our way. We got going again around 9:30 (night hiking is soo great! The days feel really long!) and got to the 13 mile shelter before 11, with only 5 miles left in the day I did what any logical person would do, I lounged. I kicked back and just chilled until 12:15 when I decided I wanted to have the rest of the afternoon to chill at the next shelter. Most of the next 5 miles to the shelter were up hill, which I LOVED! Uphill doesn't really bother my shins. The last little bit before the shelter however was down hill, I pretty much hated that. haha but I still arrived at the shelter early and the best part was a huge storm rolled through AFTER i was already in the shelter. That was awesome! Being dry is the key to happiness out here. Seriously. I woke up the next day to rain... bummer! I had expected it though, we heard a weather forecast predicting it (not that those are usually right...) I started the 17 mile day (yeah i know thats not resting, but could have done a 5 miler or 17... tenting in the rain?? I don't think so) I was thankful that the first part of the day was mostly uphillish or flat, this could not be said about the last 3 miles to the shelter. Most people would be thankful not to end the day with an uphill, in fact I am usually one of those people. Not this time. That was the most painful 3 miles of the trail so far, and it was such a beautiful section I was sorry it had to be tarnished with my pain. There was a perfect shin soaking stream right infront of the shelter, so I soaked for a while and stretched (ohh baby did that hurt!) My shins hurt pretty bad through out the stormy night even though I had taken THREE motrin, but I was still hopeful that the next day(today) would be better. I woke up to rain yet again, and walked around in attempts to loosen up a bit. Things were feeling less than ideal... I took my 3 motrin yet again and headed up the trail. Andy's dad was meeting us at the Blue Ridge Highway crossing 13 miles down the trail so I was prepared for a shorter, but most likely painful day. After hiking for a while I determined there was no way I was going to make it given the pain I was in, so I did something I have not done before on this trip. I took a FOURTH motrin. I know, 4 is a lot. If you need 4 to hike you probably shouldn't be hiking, but I did what I had to. I made it to the car with less pain than the 17 miler the day before, but it wasn't pain free. I plan on taking a zero either tomorrow or the next day (may do a short 10 mile slack-pack tomorrow as thats kinda like resting...) so all in all I'm still doing well, and I would be doing FANTASTICALLY AWESOME if it weren't for my shins. I hope they stop hurting so much soon, a dull pain would be nice right about now. I think its time for me to shower and ice. I really need to find a book store too, I want a book so bad! I hope everyone's shins are doing better than mine! Pray, cross your fingers, do anything to hope mine heal up soon!