Date: 2009-05-11
From: Laurel Creek Shelter, VA

To: Niday Shelter, VA
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: moderate rain

Cell noneOG notesC6 explained the hike today pretty well and I can't think of anything to add.I'm starting to have a pain in my left knee. I've had a slight pain since we started but it has gotten worse. I'm hoping the rest over Memorial Day weekend will do the trick. I've been taking vitamin I (Iueprofin) to help with the pain. I also watch where I step and favor that leg as I walk.It's 8:30pm and another thru-hiker just came into the shelter. He was at the last shelter we were last night. He arrived there at midnight; he hikes a little slower than we do. As C6 mentioned we passed on the magic for a dry place to sleep tonight and some needed rest. We're planning a 10 mile day tomorrow, again to let our bodies mend and because there isn't another place to stay that is in reasonable distance after it.We're now comfortable in our sleeping bags again. Red Leg and C6 are listening to their radios and C6 is also reading a book. I'll turn the radio on when I put this down. Incidentally HAPPY BIRTHDAY Cindy. Cindy is our daughter and she turned 38 today.   C6 notesWhat a hard day! We only did 12.4 miles today, but they were hard miles. A steep uphill that was about 2 miles long, followed by a challenging ridge rock walk for a long time. All of it in rain. Uphills are somewhat tolerable when they are broken up by flats and/or some downs. When they are steep they are harder. Put steep together with what feels like nonstop (2 miles!) and they are untolerable. As the day went on, the temperature dropped, so we ended (around 2pm) exhausted, cold, and our feet hurt a lot. We immediately set up our sleeping bags and then got water. We were so cold and exhausted that we got in our sleeping bags and fell asleep. The nap felt great!My left big toe is worse than yesterday. We had another big downhill that pushed on my toenail more. I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. It feels so good to have my feet without shoes and socks in my warm sleeping bag as I type this. There is some big trail magic a little over a mile from here, but we decided to not push for it because we don't want to have to tent again tonight and we are assured of having a shelter space with nearly everyone else heading for the trail magic. (Advertised as food and company. Someone put a note about it in our guest entries a couple weeks ago I think, and there have been notes in shelter logs about it.)Last night was strange. All night it sounded as if it was raining, but it didn't start to rain until around 6am. The sound we were hearing was caterpillar poop falling on our tent. There were a LOT of caterpillars everywhere at the last two shelters. A while back we saw a sign that there will be spraying to kill them sometime in June because they are so bad. We could have slept in the shelter last night, but didn't want to because of the caterpillars. We wish it hadn't started raining before we packed up, but we were happy to be in our tent before the rain started. The rain has stopped and the sun is out (but it's still very cold...52 degrees right now), so OG has strung a line and is trying to dry out our tent.It's later now and we've had a nice, hot, filling dinner. Our tent didn't dry completely, but it's much drier than when we hung it up. OG and Red Leg are hanging the bear bag, and a group of section hikers are eating supper. We haven't seen any thru-hikers since about 3pm. The trail magic ended at 7pm (it's 7:15pm now), so if we see any more hikers tonight it will be folks who hike into the evening and couldn't get this far in time for the trail magic. It's been a nice quiet evening.Old Goat & Check Six