04/09

Our uber driver was quite proud of her tattoo “nobody else has”. Being sure we knew the whole story behind it. She Flashed her wrist and in plain script it read “BITCH”. Apparently the car horn was broke and she figured sticking her hand out the window  would send the appropriate message. Such a novel idea, I can’t believe I’ve never seen such a thing before.

After a not short enough 20min ride back to the trail head, we hoisted our packs on to ourselves once again. Deciding we were ready to pick up the pace, we charted our biggest day yet. 12 miles summiting both “Rocky Mountain” standing at 3,992 ft and “Tray Mountain” at 4,398 ft. Only a few miles in my feet began to ache. Specifically my heel and ankle. The pain grew steadily until it could no longer be ignored.

For the first time being out here, I felt as though I was crawling down trail. Being a bit of a hypochondriac, every little twinge spirals into a cacophony of doubts; Am I injured? Maybe it’s nothing. This hurts really bad Kev. Planter fasciitis? Is this going to pull me off trail? I just got started! I’m not ready to quit… Im not quitting. DAMN that hurts! I don’t know what’s going on, but if I have any hopes of continuing, something has to change. The shoes! It must be my shoes. These thoughts looped endlessly through my head for hours while I hobbled up and down the trail like a geriatric. By the time we got to camp, the sun was already starting to set. An extra mile down a service road to get water, felt like torture. Every little step had me grimacing in pain.

Today was a hard day, certainly the most painful. The A.T is relentless and unforgiving. For most hikers, injury is only a matter of time. But at the start week 2? It’s hard not to feel discouraged.

After some discussion we devised a plan. “Dicks Creek Gap” was about 5.5 miles away. As it just so happens, there’s a free shuttle leaving at 10:30am for a local outfitters in Clayton, GA, specializing with footwear.

5.5 miles by 10:30am… A tall task for someone with two broken feet. All we could do was set our alarms, and hope we’d make it in time.