Day 71-A Bit of Fatigue Setting In

May 28-15 miles-Glasgow Shelter to campsite by the Pedlar River Bridge-AT mile approximately 802.3

Before I get into today, here’s a few photos from the shelter in Glasgow. 

This is the shower that Siddhartha and Boomerang rigged up. It’s a picnic table turned on end, and a cooler that they filled with water, then added hot rocks from the fire to heat the water. They also rigged a shower curtain from a big piece of plastic tarp. The water came out from the drain plug. Garlic and Siddhartha said it was awesome. Hiker ingenuity right there!

The bunks were pretty sarcophagus-like. You had to be careful not to bump your head. 

The guy from Stanimals came near 7:30 to shuttle us back to the trail. As I was crossing the road I saw this weird creepy crawler. 

It was about 3 inches long. 

Right out of the gate we had a long climb (but that’s usually the case). I’d put my waterproof socks on because we had had a lot of rain overnight. Turns out all it did was make my feet really hot. At our first snack break, I took them off. I tried not putting my other socks over my toe socks, but at lunch I ended up putting them on because my shoes were too sloppy with just the toe socks (even though I snugged up the laces). 

After the first climb we had a nice long flat section. It was heaven! Then we started the climb up to Bluff Mtn. That was another one that seemed to go on forever. I felt like I was crawling about as fast as this. 

Maybe even slower. 

Just before the summit of Bluff Mtn there was this monument. 

Such a sad story. Boomerang left four little plastic dinosaurs on the monument for Little Ottie. 

We ate our lunch on top of the mountain. The sun came out, and it was quite pleasant. 

Dusty, Fantastic, Blueberry, Music Man, Sure Foot, and I all had lunch together. 

The view from lunch 

As we descended from the top, we came back into the fog. 

When I got down to Punchbowl Mtn Overlook on the BRP, there was even a view!

There was also the ever-present trash can. I dumped, not only my trash, but also my waterproof socks. They were starting to fall apart anyway, and I just don’t see me wearing them again. 

MusicMan, Chili, and Greenbean were there waiting for the guy from Stanimals Hostel to bring them some things they left at the hostel this morning. I continued on in time to see one of my little orange friends. 

I think this is a particularly good one!

While climbing Rice Mtn (no wonder I’m tired today), we passed the 800 mile mark. 

Flat Will and LB just keep on racking up the miles. 

From the top of Rice Mtn, it was not much further to our campsite, but it was almost all downhill, and rather steep too. My knees and feet were complaining. In fact, several body parts were complaining today. We decided we’ll take a zero in Waynesboro when we get there in about 5 days. We haven’t taken a zero since Pearisburg, and that was 12 days ago. I’ve been happy to not take any zeros because that drives the average miles per day up. We are now at 11.1. I want to get up to more than 12 average miles per day to finish in roughly 6 months. I want more than 12 because we haven’t done the Smokies yet, but the average is including the Smokies. 

Anyway, I crossed over the Pedlar River on this suspension bridge, and joined Dusty and Sure Foot at the campsite. 

Dusty getting water for me. 

After dinner, Dusty and I went back to the bridge, and washed up in the river. Boomerang and Garlic went by. They are continuing on to a campsite further up the trail. 

Although my knees weren’t really puffy tonight, I decided to tape them with some KT tape. I’ll see if it helps tomorrow.