Days 7 & 8: April 10 & 11, 2021
Unicoi Gap to Deep Gap - 13.3 miles
Day 7: April 10, 2021 - Zero
Helen, GA provided a much-needed rest day. My knees and feet were still feeling painful from pushing it the day before so I spent some time learning about how I could take care of my body. I researched plantar fasciitis and wrote down a few stretches and massages I could do to heal my arches. Resting helped a lot, and my right foot didn’t feel broken anymore. I was confident in Dark Cloud’s diagnosis, so I didn’t feel the need to get it checked out by a doctor. I also bought a couple of knee braces for myself so I could return Cowboy’s to him. I was hopeful that my new stretches and braces would alleviate some of my pain.
Time in town meant resupply, laundry, food, and relaxation. In the morning, we ate breakfast at Huddle House, a chain similar to Waffle House. I had coffee, eggs, grits, and blueberry pancakes. While the food was delicious, it felt like a rock in my gut all day.
After laundry and resupply, I spent the rest of the day in the hotel room. I wrote in my journal and updated my Facebook page for my family. As I wrote, I thought back to a couple nights earlier when I heard that weird animal that sounded like a monkey. I started researching animals in the Georgia Appalachians and I came across the likely culprit. I learned that it was probably a Barred Owl or two; click to hear what it sounded like!
Pickles joined the boys for dinner, but I decided to stay in and enjoy the room to myself. My stomach was in knots, and I couldn’t decide if I needed to sit on the toilet or curl up in a little ball in the bed; I wound up doing both.
I enjoyed my time in town, but I felt a lot of anxiety while I was there. The world seemed to move too fast, the cars and people were too loud, and I felt uneasy being away from the trail. Somehow, that strip of bare earth had become my home, and I missed it. I was eager to get back and put some miles on it!
Day 8: Unicoi Gap to Deep Gap - 13.3 miles
I began my morning feeling extremely frustrated and down, no one else in my tramily seemed to be in as much pain as me, but if they were they hid it very well. I took a long time stretching before hiking, but even after doing that I hiked slowly up the trail. Each time I came along a stream, I would stop to ice my feet to bring down any swelling that developed.
Despite my efforts in the morning, the stretching and knee braces did not appear to help with any of my pain. I found walking uphill to be excruciating on both of my feet while walking downhill I felt it in my knees. Every single step I took was agony.
I joined Stache and Cowboy for a break at the top of a grueling climb. While I sat down to catch my breath and get off my feet, the boys were enjoying some tobacco they picked up in town. Stache filled a pipe while Cowboy rolled himself a cigarette. I sat and chatted with them for a while, happy to be off my aching legs. Cowboy was digging around in the foliage and grass nearby finding small, empty snail shells. Each one he found he gave to me and said, “for you, my lady.” I would laugh and accept his gracious gift, forming a pile of snail shells next to me. This act of kindness reminded me of a mating ritual observed in Gentoo Penguins. The male will find the perfect pebble and present it to the female as a proposal of sorts. I’m not saying this is what Cowboy was doing, but it did make me think of him as a bird!
I was planning on keeping my mileage to the usual eight miles like I had been doing; it seemed like a good pace to keep, especially since I was in so much pain. As the day went on, I struggled to keep up with my friends. The text messages in the group chat were the only form of communication I had with them. When I got service, I checked my phone and saw that a couple of my friends had checked out one campsite, but they didn’t like it, so they let everyone know they were going to hike further down trail. I was annoyed to read this because that was the campsite I was planning on staying at. I had two choices, hike my eight miles and stop or push myself to catch up with my friends. I wasn’t ready to lose them yet, so I decided to keep going. Each step after that got harder knowing that my finish line had just been moved back a couple miles.
I have mentioned before that the Appalachian Trail is marked by white blazes, or white strips of paint. To indicate you are no longer on the AT, spur trails to access a view, water source, or shelter were marked with blue blazes. After trudging for 13 miles, I felt defeated to see that my shelter, my salvation, was 0.3 miles down a blue blaze. I sighed and put one swollen foot in front of the other and began the decent to the shelter.
As I approached, Freshly Baked (I had begun to call him Fresh) jogged over to me and told me to take off my pack; he carried my pack the rest of the way for me. Walking the last few steps without the additional 30+ pounds on my back was a godsend!
Everyone was already at the shelter with their tents set up and they were beginning dinner preparations. I joined them after I had made my own camp. I shuffled through my food bag to pick out the biggest and heaviest item to eat first so I wouldn’t have to carry it another day. My hand landed on the Chili Mac backpacker meal. I hadn’t tired this one yet, backpacker meals were hit or miss. This was my first one on the trail, but I had sampled a few at home. I boiled the amount of water the recipe called for and added it to the insulated bag. I gave it a stir with my spork and sealed it up to leave for 10 minutes while it cooked. I had bought string cheese and split the package with Pickles while in town. After 10 minutes had passed, I opened up my package to add bits of string cheese. I felt too lazy to cut the string cheese, so I took bites of it and spit the chunks into the bag. Some of my friends found this to be disgusting, others found it innovative. I added a splash of olive oil, for extra fat, and stirred the mixture before sealing it up again. After a few more minutes, it was ready to eat. This was one of my favorite meals on trail!
After dinner, I shuffled my sore body over to the water source for the shelter to dunk my feet in. Not long into soaking, I found the smallest salamander I had ever seen. It made me extremely happy to see such a small critter.
Every mile I walked that day was painful and it was the first of many tests. Without the moral support from my tramily, I’m not sure I would have made it through that arduous time. I may not have been happy to walk over 13 miles that day, but who’s to say how my hike would have changed if I had stopped at eight.
Next time on Packing It In: After hiking a hard day, I am treated to another easy one with another trip into a town. We visited one of the locations of a famous outdoor gear store along the AT and I make a few adjustments to the gear I carry.