Date: 2016-04-11
From: Wise Shelter

To: Mt. Rogers Visitor Center
Miles today: 30.1

I woke up early and packed up from Wise and was on the trail by 7:30. It may have been earlier as I had been hiking for some time before checking the time. Physically I felt OK but mentally I was still in a haze. My goal was the shelter about 20 miles out and I kept plugging away. Throughout the day a lot of hikers were passing me up. I'd try to keep up for a while then just fall back to my comfortable but slower pace. Speed is not my strong suit... but I can hike for plenty of hours.. I got to a grassy bald and took a panoramic photo while listening to a song and just taking in the view. The 360 view was amazing and I soaked it in to remind myself of one of the reasons for hiking a thru hike... to enjoy the views! I pushed on and my feet were growing weary with the miles. I arrived at the turn off to the shelter at about 4:30 with plenty of day light left. I had during the day contemplated going to Partnership shelter, another 10 miles or so...Now I was faced with that decision to make. I was at the fork on the trail. The shelter was about .4 or .5 off the trail so I decided to just go for it. Knowing rain was in the forecast for the following morning made it wOrth going for...I continued on and made it to the next water source about 2 miles up the trail. My feet were starting to bother me more but I wasn't going to go backwards and tenting wasn't a serious consideration with rain in the forecast. Tenting was an option but only as a last resort.Ironically I set out on the additional 10 miles so I wouldn't have to hike with wet feet... and guess what? At the first water source on the trail my left foot slipped and went right into the water... I looked at my left foot which was now soaked wondering what to do now??? I just took my right foot and stuck it in the water too! At least my feet would be of even weight/condition. Then I filtered the collected water and continued on with wet soggy feet... go figure!It was a long 8 miles or so to Partnership Shelter and the visitors center. I had my headphones one with every song that could help me along. I took some additional Ibuprofen to try to lessen the pain in my feet and kept moving. Fortunately after one last big climb the trail leveled out along a ridge and stayed that way for most of the way to partnership shelter. I used my guthook app to make sure I was still on the right trail and to update me as to how much further I had to go. Finally I made it to the shelter around 10:30. The lower level looked full so I figured I'd have to climb up to the second. My feet were killing me at this point so I kept going to the closed visitors center and sat on a stone wall in front to take off my shoes and check out the damage in the streetop lights. They were a little soggy but not TOO bad...I let them air out for a while before putting on my crocks and pulling out my sleeping gear from my pack and heading back to the shelter for the night.Climbing up the ladder to the second level with my sleeping pad, sleeping bag and stuff out was challenging. Fortunately there was a space left and I set up as quietly as I could and went to sleep.