Date: 2017-06-01
From: Elk Garden, VA 600

To: US 58, Feathercamp Branch (Southbound)
Miles today: 18.4
Weather: scattered clouds

Today was a hard slog, but I'm recovering now.  We were to leave the house at 5:30 AM, but I couldn't find my hiking stick.  I had last seen it in the white van, but I couldn't find it in the dark.  Warrren, aggravated, went to the van and got another stick for me to use.  He dropped Rennie, Lizzie, and me at Elk Garden, and we headed south.  Lizzie took the lead, and Rennie said he'd follow me.  I don't do well with this setup.  Although Rennie can slow his pace to mine, he never takes a break and doesn't stop to take pictures.  So I felt inhibited to make stops.  The pole that Warren lent me was terrible.  It was collapsible, and each time I planted it in mud one joint came completely apart.  Each time I had to stop to put it back together.  There were a lot of muddy spots, and I had to stop repeatedly.  After about 100 such stops (not an exaggeration) Rennie unrolled some duct tape from his pole and taped over the bad joint.  The repair was only partially successful, and I continued to have to keep pushing it together. Finally, about 6 miles from the end it snapped at the joint, and I was left with no stick.  I walked a few miles keeping my eye out for an appropriate tree limb, but most of what I saw was either waterlogged or rotten.  Finally Rennie found a heavy but serviceable long stick for me to use.  All of this woe was compounded by my decision to go without ibuprofen for the day and my twisting my left knee after tripping over a root.  Ever since we started doing the 20-mile days my knees have been sore.  I've been taking ibuprofen round the clock.  Yesterday after only hiking 5.6 miles my knees felt fine without the medication.  I decided to go without ibuprofen for the day to see what kind of shape my knees are actually in.  They did fine for the first five miles, which were uphill, but once the downhill started they really hurt.  I was having a klutzy day and tripped and stumbled a lot.  In one mud hole I tripped over a root.  My gyrations to avoid falling resulted in twisting my left knee.  I had just spent a week babying it after a previous twist.  Now I was back at the beginning again.  Not all was misery, however.  We crossed over Whitetop Mountain.  At Buzzard Rock there were 360-degree views of the mountains around us (see photo).  It was a clear sunny day, and it was beautiful.  The wind was blowing quite hard, so we didn't stay long.  Most of the rest of the hike was through woods -- mostly rhododendron, but occasionally tall evergreens.  Part of the trail coincided with the Virginia Creeper Trail, a rail trail that's heavily used by bicyclists.  In this section there were two elaborate footbridges, which I'm sure were very costly to build.  Near the end of the hike the trail followed a rushing stream.  We've been staying at the Appalachian Folk School all week.  This is Warren's organization.  We've been staying in bunkhouses in real beds and having access to real toilets and showers.  Tomorrow that ends, and we'll be back to camping.  The weather forecast for the next several days looks good, so maybe we'll have some enjoyable time in our tents.  One last note about the Folk School: all week a scrawny black cat has been hanging around interviewing for an owner.  It's universally friendly and sweet, so Bill has been feeding it.  At first it was aggressively friendly and spent a lot of time trying to get into our food bins, but over the course of the week it has learned not to get into the bins and not to go into the house.  Even Arlene and Lizzie who dislike cats have weakened.  Lizzie, who named the cat Go Away, fed it a whole carton of milk this evening.  Tomorrow we're headed to the Grayson Highlands, where the wild ponies live. I'll be taking Ibuprofen.