Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 66 – We’re halfway there!
30th September 2023
James Fry Shelter (1086.1) - Rocky Mountain Shelter (1116.2)
Daily miles: 30.3
Total miles: 1122
Lemonhope left at 3am, at least that what Pyro said the time was. I woke briefly and saw his red light but went immediately back to sleep.
I woke up and sneezed. I felt really rough and thought – oh no, I hope I’m not coming down with something. Thankfully once I started walking I felt ok.
Mornings by red light in the shelter
3 hunters dressed in camouflage carrying bow and arrows showed up before it got light. I’m pleased we got those orange Buffs, I don’t want to be shot by a bow and arrow!
It was so mild last night which made getting up this morning a lot easier. I didn’t even have to put my jumper on. I thought the mild weather was over, but not yet it seems.
I was back on trail at 06:50am just as it was light enough to see.
Early morning forest
A nice trail to the state park
My foot was so painful. I don’t think it’s the shoes, I think it’s a problem with my foot. I just don’t know what the problem is.
It was a nice walk to Pine Grove. It was about 7 miles and the trail was nice to walk on, then it was a road walk into the park which was great. I had to take my shoe off a couple of times and massage my foot. After I did this it would be ok for about 45 minutes and then build up to really hurting again. With 30 miles to do today this is not a good position to be in!
Struggling with foot pain
I got to a toilet block and that made me very happy because I had been needing to go all morning. They were so nice and clean, with showers too if you needed a shower. I didn’t of course, having only had one 2 days ago. Don’t want to be too clean.
A nice trail next to the river
Happy to visit the facilities
I came to the AT museum and went in. I couldn’t remember if I went there last time or not but it was nice to see some of the old stuff. When I saw an old shelter set up in there I remembered seeing it before.
The Appalachian Trail musuem
The others caught up to me while I was looking around and we walked over to the store together. They wanted coffee but there wasn’t any. The store was very sad looking with barely anything in it. I guess they are winding down for the season. No ice cream so no half gallon challenge, not that I had any desire to do it but we were going to watch Pyro do it.
No ice cream!
In the end we had a soda each. A halfway Mountain Dew - although Mountain Dew is not my go to anymore - and then we moved on.
We walked together for a few miles until we got to the halfway marker (which I think is slightly off because of the changes made to the trail each year, but what’s a few miles out of 2000?).
Hiking with my friends
The halfway sign
Who runs the world?
Girls!
We stopped just after for a lunch break and I intended to stop for 5 minutes but ended up staying about 20 putting me in the hiking-in-the-dark danger zone.
May Queen eating lunch in the dirt
Pyro and Toe eating lunch in the dirt
I hiked on. After about an hour I came to a halfway sign made of rocks and that’s probably the halfway marker for this year.
This years halfway point
The rest of the afternoon was such lovely trail but I just couldn’t make the most of it because I was feeling tired, but also my foot was slowing me down. Pyro caught up and flew past me, and about an hour later Toe also caught up and flew past me. She was cruising today. I was struggling. I kept having to take my shoe off and spread my foot out, give it a little rub, then carry on.
A very bright caterpillar
It was really warm and the heat was also probably slowing me down a little too. The trail wasn’t as rocky as it has been and it was a nice wide trail, lots of old forest service roads maybe. The trees weren’t as dense up here so it felt more open, and the colours of autumn were in some of the trees.
Really nice afternoon trail – autumn is coming
The forest
Around 4:30pm I sat on a rock and had a good look at my foot. I thought the pain was coming from the side because of tight shoes but in fact the cause of the pain is what looks like a corn on the bottom of my foot. It’s hard to see but there is a bit of hard skin and when I press it it hurts a lot! So that’s where the pain is coming from. It’s not my shoes.
The beginnings of a corn on the ball of my little toe. Do you see it?
I felt slightly relieved as it can be fixed. I can get rid of a corn. I’ve had one before between my toes and that hurt a lot too. Sadly I think they take a while to get rid of and there is nothing I can do about it immediately. But at least it’s not a bigger problem like a fracture which I had begun to think it might be because of the sharpness of the pain.
So for now I just have to carry on putting up with it and try to minimise the pain by giving it a rub every few miles. It’s amazing how something so small can be so painful.
I carry on. I feel a bit like I got a second wind and picked up the pace. I drank all my water and was feeling pretty thirsty so that was also a motivator to get to the next state park where there was water. I passed the best shelter on the AT - it’s so well maintained and has hanging baskets of flowers outside – I didn’t stay there last time and I won’t be staying there this time although I could have quite happily ended my day there and spent the night.
Going south
The best maintained shelter on the AT
I was walking confidently and at a good pace down the hill when I tripped and took my worst fall to date. I smacked my knee and then rolled fully, twice, down 2 rock steps before coming to a stop. The stuff in the front pocket of my bag was spread over the trail and I had yet another cut on my knee and some pain where I bashed my leg. No real damage done thankfully, but because I felt so tired and annoyed with myself for adding another scrape to my leg, I burst into tears. Sobs. Ugly snotty sobs. This lasted for about 2 minutes before I picked myself up, shoved all the stuff back into my bag and carried on.
ANOTHER fall!
I was only about half a mile from the state park and went to the bathroom to wash my hand which had a small graze, and use the loo.
As I came out of the bathroom I saw May Queen. She must have been right behind me, had I sat in the trail for another couple of minutes she would have seen me there sobbing. I told her what happened and she said she had been on the struggle bus a bit this afternoon too.
Mirror selfie with cry face
I filled my water bottle. Drank the whole thing. Filled it again and put it in my pack. Then I drank a few more mouthfuls from the fountain. I needed badly to rehydrate. I still had 3.5 miles to go to the shelter and it was 6pm so I needed to get moving. May Queen said she was going to sit for 5 minutes before carrying on.
I set out and the first bit was nice and flat and then there was a really sketchy road crossing where there was so much traffic coming from one direction, and then the other direction was impossible to see because of the sun so it took me a while to get across.
The trail climbed uphill a bit but I was actually pleasantly surprised as it wasn’t as bad a climb as I was expecting. I saw a couple on their way down and they didn’t move out the way (I had seen loads of people on trail today because it’s a Saturday) and they said ‘the trail up to the camp site is really tricky’. No hello. No questions. Just unsolicited advice. I was in no mood for this so I said ‘I’ve walked here from Maine, I think I’ll be ok’
I felt bad for being rude for about 5 minutes and then I got over it.
The trial, as it happens, did get a lot rockier, some boulders and rocks to negotiate but nothing like what we have already been through. I later found out that the same couple told May Queen she would never make it before dark and it was a scramble.
Boulders
Well it started to get darker, but it was nice to see the sun setting through the trees and see the glow of the evening light. I made it to the shelter at 7:15pm. It was getting dark but I could still just about see and I didn’t use my headlamp so technically that’s not night hiking! May Queen arrived about 5 minutes after I did and she didn’t use her headlamp until she was on the spur trail to the shelter so technically she made it before dark too!
Last light on the trees
Getting dark in the forest
There were 2 shelters there. One had 2 people in and the other had one man in. The others decided they were going to go and cowboy camp a bit further down the trail. I decided to sleep in the shelter with the solo guy. I spoke to him a bit and he seemed nice enough. Hopefully I won’t be murdered in my sleep.
It was so good to lie down. The whole of my legs are throbbing and I can’t actually feel my feet. I think they are totally numb.
It’s a big day planned tomorrow. I am mostly dreading it!
The last couple of days the top of my foot (where I had the foot drop problems) has felt really weak. I’ve noticed if feeling different. Slightly worrying.
