Date: 2016-05-27
From: Hertlein Campsite

To: The pRavilion
Miles today: 18.1
Weather: scattered clouds

What a day, what a day. I woke up at the Reservoir. It rained a little over night, but had stopped by the morning. My tent was damp, but not as bad as my first time tenting in the rain my first nights out on the trail. It also wasn't ridiculously heavy from the water like it had been the time before.It always hurts taking those first steps out of my tent. Feeling my skin separating on my heel. I'm getting a tad used to it, but not enough. My feet look the worst out of anyone's I've seen out here. It's pretty disgusting. I'll probably be banned from wearing flip flops in FL ever again after this trip! Haha and for good reasons too. So I have this awkward struggle standing up and pulling myself out of my tent every morning. I have to get my hands on the ground in front of me, and shift my weight on to my right foot (which is apparently unnatural for me?), then I press my weight on my right foot and pull myself out of my tent with my hands on the ground; all this to try and put as little pressure on my left foot with my bad heel. Most times I fall at least twice before managing to get out of my tent. Additionally, it's such a struggle to get it every morning, it's like I always seem to pitch my tent where there's a slight uphill from my tent door or something. You get it though: the struggle is real! After I got out of my tent, I practically hop on my right foot to get to my food bag. My heel split in the process of course. It takes about 10 min each morning before I can walk on it almost normally. The time decreases with each passing day, thankfully, which means healing heels! I grabbed my food bag and about 10 millipedes had slept on top of it to hide from the rain last night. They all came flying off in my face as I pulled it down- gross.I can't remember every minute detail of this morning, as it was so long ago, but I know that both the boys packed their stuff in about 5 minutes and were on their way. My jaw practically hit the dirt. My morning routine is at least an hour long. I didn't even cook breakfast this morning. Oh well, so I'm astonished and jealous, while pitifully cleaning and wrapping my feet up. I have run out of practically all my blister products so I decided not to over tape today and pray that the toes that were first to blister have calloused enough to be tape free.Today was an 18 miler to get to town tonight. I wasn't originally going to push tonight, and I was going to get as far as my feet would take me. However, I was reminded at 501 that Monday is a holiday and that Port Clinton had very short Saturday hours. I wasn't going to risk not waking up early enough to get there on Saturday, therefore, I knew I needed to push through today as best as I could in order to get there tonight. It was good to get there tonight because my friends would all still be there too. Reunion- yay!I stopped for a break at Eagle's Nest. I believe it was around 1 or 2 pm. My feet were throbbing, I needed a break so badly. The shelter was an awful .3 miles off the trail, which was excruciating at that point. I could only make it to the spring before I kicked off my shoes and blister tapes and dropped my pack. I couldn't make it to the shelter, another .1 was just too far at that time. I put my feet in the water and tried to get my stuff out of the path of the trail. Then I practically crawled up the hill to where the water was actually running, I got out my jerky and my mat and I laid with my feet on my pack and my head almost right next to the spring. Looking back, it was probably a little rude of me to be so close to the spring. I mean my hair wasn't touching it close, but it was a few feet from my head. I was just purely exhausted. I ate my beef jerky laying down and a man came over to fill his bottles. He swore I was ok. I tried to back a little bit more away from the spring for him too. Thankfully, he was the only person who got water while I was there that I know of. I fell asleep for about an hour after I finished my jerky.I woke up and rolled over to find toothpick down at the bottom of the water, soaking her feet. We chatted a bit while I relentlessly packed up my stuff and got out of everyone's way. My own personal joke out here is that I'm such a frat boy. I get to places and I'm always so exhausted that I plop down and end up leaving a trail of my stuff in -or near- everyone's way. I always try to go back and get it (like my trekking poles for sure) but sometimes other people get to them for me. I feel terrible! And it is SO unlike me. I clean houses for a living at home; I'm a total clean freak and am constantly organizing stuff. So it's crazy how I am like this out here. I do work on fixing it daily. (For the record: in real time, I'm on day 24: I've become MUCH better at keeping my crap out of everyone's way now. Haha go me!)So I hiked on to Port Clinton. I don't remember much, except that the downhill into PC was serious! It was even more seriously painful being my 17th mile of the day with swollen, aching feet. Luckily, I was able to listen to music, knowing I was about to be in town and could charge my phone. Taylor Swift's Blank Space song really turned the pain into progress for me right as it came on. It made me think of Big O and how he loves this song. He said it's a power song for him too. I let a big smile stretch across my face and I belted out the lyrics as I powered down the rocky slope. I was instantly happier and excited to get to town. I told myself that I was closer and closer with each hammering step.Once I got down the mountain, I walked through an old train station. It was so cute. I missed the pretty green train that left right as I got down, but I got a nice picture of a red one. I walked across the bridge and in to town and my friends called me up and told me how to get to the pavilion.Stonecold met me outside and we walked there together. He told me about this guy named Bag of Tricks and all the amazing things he's going to do for us and the hikers. He even offered to give me a ride to the pavilion, but I was half way there and decided to walk. It hurt very badly. It was actually not my choice to continue walking lol. I wanted a wheel chair to descend from heaven at that moment.I got to the pRavilion (as Obi likes to call it), I set up my tent and elevated my feet. Tricks had Stonecold go get me an ice cold Gatorade from his cooler in his truck. They offered me snacks too; I was just so happy to be done walking and back with my friends. I hung out with Obi, Wet Beard and Hootie while I let my feet rest, then Obi, Wet Beard and I, went to get dinner at the bar. I brought up the scenario one last time to Obi bc I just *had* to let him know I wasn't crazy and that Toothpick was on the same wavelength as me. It didn't make a difference. Haha he still didn't know what I meant, but I was officially able to let it go and now I've got my peace of mind back -that's all that matters to me! After dinner, we bought some beers and went back and hung out at the PRavilion. Everyone was in bed by then, since they all partied hard the night before. So me, Obi, Baloo, and Tricks went across the street to a picnic table and laughed and talked for a good couple hours. It was a nice night in town. I was so proud of myself that I made it to PC, all 18 miles, all by myself. The beers were a great way to relax and celebrate. Being back with friends was the cherry on top! I slept well this night.Follow my SNOG for daily updates and pics. Snapchat username: saylind.vettloRemember who you are.