Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 65 – New things in Boiling Springs
29th September 2023
Conodoguinet Creek (1063.8) - James Fry Shelter (1086.1)
Daily miles: 22.5
Total miles: 1091.7
After staying up too late I slept well. It was so nice to be able to spread out all my limbs and not be confined to the boundaries of my blow up mat. It’s uncomfortable to lay on my back because there is too much pressure on my heels, but other than that any position was good.
We woke up to the news that Cal had finished his hike through Pennsylvania and he had hiked 230 miles in 4 days 2 hours and 49 minutes, unsupported – which means he carried everything he needed for the whole time and didn’t pick anything else up, didn’t accept any trail magic etc. He set a new FKT (fastest known time) for the Pennsylvania section of the AT! Amazing.
We went down for breakfast around 7am and Natalie had made eggs and sausages and vegan stuff for the vegans, bagels and meats and cheese and anything we could have wanted. It was going to be hard to leave and I wish we could have had a bit more down time here. But we needed to hike.
Breakfast
First day of school
We had an amazing stay with Trail Magic Natalie and Just John
We were also able to ransack her resupply items – she had so much good stuff – and then we got going to Walmart because we needed to get extra stuff for our resupply.
3 of us have new shoes today. Me, Toe and Pyro.
The final hole
Ready for the bin
Not a lot of grip left
New shoes!
Trying out the Topo Athletic Ultraventure 3
At Walmart I picked up the usual stuff. Fruit snacks. Croissants. Brownies. Milky Way. Twix. Drink flavouring. Pringles. Doritos… and I still had a few things left over from the last resupply that I hadn’t eaten.
We pile back into the car and go back to where we had been picked up, and we organise our food into our food bags so Natalie can take all the trash home with her. I had a soda and the others packed out a beer and we all drank those in the car park before we left.
Hanging out in the car park
Pre-trail soda
Saying goodbye to Natalie
It was drizzling a little which we weren’t expecting. It was gone 11am by the time we started hiking and I had already resigned myself to hiking in the dark tonight to get to the shelter. Lemonhope went off ahead as he wanted to do some bigger miles and get there a day ahead to meet some of his family.
We walked across some boards and only about 10 minutes into the day a felt a sharp pain on my ankle. I swiped it and there was a yellow jacket on my sock and it was stinging me and I couldn’t get it off. I had to flick it. It was stinging so badly. Then I felt something on my bum and I wiped it and I came away with a yellow jacket on my finger. I flicked that one away too before it could sting me.
We stoped to take our rain jackets off because although there was a little drizzle it was still hot and humid. I wanted to get out of that area as fast as possible. For the rest of the day the sting was uncomfortable. It was in a really unfortunate place, right on the ankle, and I felt like there was something sharp sticking into my sock the whole time. Horrible.
Plus. My new shoes were… new shoes. They will take a while to feel comfortable and normal. One great thing is the amount of cushioning on the sole; yesterday I could feel everything through my shoes and today I actually felt like my feet were being protected. A bad thing is that they are still too narrow and the pain in the ball of my little toe on my right foot was bad.
I hiked for a while but had to stop and make some adjustments to my shoes because they were just getting too painful. I loosened the laces and removed the insole. I didn’t do anything to the left one. It’s the right one which has all the problems. It seemed to help a bit.
The first few miles to Boiling Springs were relatively flat, going through farm land, big fields of corn (which all looked very much past their best, what happens to it if it’s all rotten?) and we crossed so many roads today.
Open fields
Road walks
Crossing the interstate again
Crossing the railway lines again
Blue bridges
Graveyard
Nice flat walking
Poppin’ yellows
Corn fields
The corn doesn’t look good!
Lots of styles today
I was a little ahead of the others and I got to Boiling Springs around 2ish. There is an outfitter right on trail so I went in to see if they had any trekking pole tips. Mine were worn down to half what they are meant to be and they slip all the time. My friends looked in REI yesterday but they didn’t have any.
There was only one guy in there and he had a customer who was looking in the other side of the shop. At first I thought it was all arts and crafts stuff, but it was actually fishing stuff. Who knew there was so much flare to fishing!
I wandered around the shop for a while. There was some really nice stuff in there; loads of nice Patagonia clothes! They also had trekking pole tips but unless they could help me replace them there would be no point me buying them.
After about 15 mins the others arrived and we decided to buy the bright orange Buffs. We are supposed to have something “blaze orange” on us for hunting season, and bow and arrow season is just about to start. We were all going to get beanies but as the weather is set to be up around 30°C next week I didn’t like the thought of wearing a woolly hat to hike in so thought a buff would be better.
The guys in there were able to help me with my trekking poles and replaced the tips for me. They also did May Queens, and as they couldn’t get the old ones off they replaced the whole metal sections for her free of charge.
TCO - outdoor shop
New pole tips – the old ones were just plastic stumps
I also exchanged my Darn Tough socks in there because they have holes in and they have a lifetime warranty. I gave my old socks over and he said he didn’t want them and to throw them in the trash. I was about to do just that when Pyro said I could just take them and exchange them somewhere else and get a free pair of socks. Of course! I didn’t even think of that, I was just going to throw them away. So now I’m carrying an extra pair of socks.
We went to the gas station and I picked up a chocolate milk. We sat at a picnic table for a few minutes then as it was 3pm and we still had 12 miles to do I needed to get going. I left first and then found a couple of portaloos so ducked in there and was determined to work some things out before hiking on. I had felt a bit odd in the tummy today and I think it was the effect of the real food after eating junk for so long.
Toe and Pyro caught up to me with Toe announcing that she would “try and release a nugget”. We all hiked out together but I was feeling really lethargic and I just couldn’t keep up with them. I watched them get further and further away as we walked across the fields and back into the forest. I put in a podcast and just got my head down and tried to hike as fast as possible without causing pain in my feet.
Pyro and Toe
Getting further and further away
I caught up to them again as they were filtering water and there was now 6 miles to go. Toe said it was the last water before the shelter so I chugged what I had and then filled my bottle up; 0.7l was enough for me.
They hiked on while I was filtering and I managed to catch up with them again at the top of the hill - I wasn’t trying and hadn’t expected to catch them, but there was a big boulder field slowing them down a bit. After that I managed to stay with them all the way to the shelter. I was feeling a lot better than I had this morning and Toe was carrying 2 litres of water which was slowing her down!
Boulder fields
The big rocks slowed them down
It started to get dark and we resisted putting on headlamps as we could just about still see. We came to a road crossing where it was a lot lighter and when we went back into the trees it became night again, it was so dark. I was first to crack and put my head light on; preferable to falling over. We hiked for about 15 minutes in the dark until we got to the shelter around 7:30pm. We also crossed a stream just before the junction to the shelter so we carried water 6 miles for no reason, but at least we didn’t have to stop and filter water in the dark.
Running down the road while there was still light
The forest was very dark
It was a 0.2 mile side trail to the shelter and we found Lemonhope there. He didn’t make it any further, he has plans to do bigger miles tomorrow. About 15 minutes after we arrive May Queen arrives and the band is back together.
We set up, eat – Pringles and cheese for me – I’m really not that hungry, I’ve hardly eaten any snacks today so I am over carrying food. We don’t stay up too long because the need to be horizontal is great.
Setting up my stuff in the shelter
Dinner by red light
It’s surprisingly mild tonight. No need to have a jumper on really. I’m now lying in my bag, my ankle is throbbing and it still feels like something is poking in it like a needle every so often. It’s pretty uncomfortable. It’s now 9:30pm. I should be asleep.
