Date: 2006-05-14
From: Daleville VA

To: Bobblets Gap Shelter
Miles today: 18.5
Weather: moderate rain

Today being Mothers day was a special day for Coyotebec. She is like the trail mom for a number of people on the trail - always looking at a swollen ankle or knee or giving out some pepto bismol or spending hours chatting about things while walking down the trail. She is special - and they all let her know with a mothers day card and a rose at breakfast. She put the rose in the side pocket of her pack and we headed out onto the trail in the pouring rain. The rain kept up pretty much all day long, sometimes stopping long enough for our shorts to dry out. Thinking of walking in the rain all day doesn't appeal to many people. Usually for us that's the case also. But today for some reason, Tink, O2bee, Coyotebec and I were all in a great frame of mind for the weather. It was exhilarating to hear the lightning splitting the sky over our heads with the resounding thunder off the ridges.   So exhilarating in fact that we missed a turn when the trail crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway, causing us to backtrack about half a mile. After 8 hours of walking, we arrived at the shelter. There were already 4 or 5 people there and we knew Hindsfeet and Snapper were on the way and would need to stay in there. We wanted to camp, but there was no spots to set up the tarp by the shelter. So we filled all our water and hiked back up to the trail and found a site nearby. O2bee camped with us. Mothers Day supper was served in bed with the rain falling: Pasta with butter and Parmesan, Mashed potatoes and Chocolate pudding for dessert.Tired, and ready to warm up under our sleeping quilt."Sunday, May 14th and Full Moon Report".I will end the daily report here to go into the Full Moon Report:This is our second full moon report. We have now been on the trail for 2 full months. We've covered over 700 miles. This report will catch you up with an overview on how we are doing out here.PhysicalDuring our first month out we had concerns over knee problems and other ailments. Our confidence has increased that we won't have our trip wiped out by an early injury. The main physical problem we've faced lately has been Coyotebec's feet being sore and swelling some. We've changed her shoes to the Keen Taos Trail sandal, and this seems to have helped over the last couple of days.Last time I shared from the guidebook how hikers in 6-8 weeks can reach "hiking machine" strength. Well - I am not sure if we are there yet, but we are MUCH stronger than we were a month ago. We are routinely doing 18-20 miles a day without a whole lot of problems. The last 3 weeks we have been well over 100 miles per week. The biggest trick of course is to do this without injuring yourself. We are still seeing a lot of people dropping out with foot, ankle, shin and other lower leg problems. Another problem we are seeing is with people that are not getting enough food to support the activity level. They lose too much weight and then have no energy to be able to hike. Our insights are to buy nutritious foods and not just foods with lots of calories. This might seem like a "duuh" thing to say, but we see so many people trying to live on Ramen, pop tarts and snickers. The other issue with this is being susceptible to sickness. There was a rash of stomach virus on the trail. Since hikers congregate at shelters and hostels, it's easy for these things to be passed on. If you are not in great shape eating wise, your body can't fight off the bug.MentalWe feel great mentally. We are still fresh and having fun hiking. The biggest things we are trying to guard against are having letdowns after visitors go home and also becoming bored with the long days of hiking. We had 2 weeks this month with visitors. We knew there could be a letdown after they left, so we were sure to guard our emotions on this. We are seeing hikers feeling "blah" about the trail lately. Virginia is over 520 miles and can be a little repetitious. There's not a lot of well known trail towns and a lot of hikers have gone home. It's getting a little tougher to head out on 100 mile sections every week - spending 10 hours a day or more on our feet walking. So, boredom can be tough to deal with right now. We try to take our hiking as the job that we have right now. It's also the best job we can imagine having.GearWe are loving our gear. Of special note this month (since it's been raining a lot more) has been our umbrellas. This is absolutely the best thing we've brought. We hardly have worn our raingear. While others are soaked, we are staying dry. The other controversial gear has been our tarp. Not many people use tarps out here, but it has been awesome. We've weathered a lot of storms and stayed dry.EmotionalIt's a little hard to write this one, because we don't seem to be having challenges in this area. We've seen hikers having problems with boredom, partner problems and just simply missing home. I think there's a lot to be said for saying to yourself that this is your new job and you have to work 8-10 hours a day. It's not always fun or easy, but as Tink says, "you gotta keep choppin' wood".