Day 56
Johns Spring Shelter to Daleville, VA
Miles Hiked: 18.8
AT Milage: 729.7
I slept for maybe three hours last night. I’ve been having a lot of trouble sleeping on the trail and it’s really frustrating. It makes me so exhausted. I got on the trail in all my wet clothes before 7am. I was excited to get to town and have a warm place to sleep. Flamingo caught up to me in the first mile because he woke up at 4am. He couldn’t sleep last night because of the bear and his shin splints so he just decided to start hiking really early. It took him forever to hike three miles because of his pain and being scared about a stump that looked like a bear in the dark. We hiked up to McAfee Knob together which was good because we could take pictures of each other at the view that is supposed to be great. It’s actually the most photographed place on the Appalachian Trail. When we got there we couldn’t see anything except a white void. I was so sad but also expected it. It finally stopped raining today… kind of. It was still very wet and there was still spurts of water coming from the sky but it wasn’t as constant as the past few days.
We hiked so slow today. Flamingo got shin splints on his other leg which made him go super slow and I was just feeling terrible from the weather. It’s really hard to stay positive when I’ve been wet and not sleeping for three to four days. Yesterday Flamingo was incredibly grumpy and today that was me. I was having such a hard time mentally getting through the hike today. Every mile felt like it took so long. We passed tinker cliffs with no view. It was nice to actually hike with Flamingo/ someone for once. Usually he is so fast I never see him until we get to camp. Today we were both struggling so hard and got slap happy about being in the rain for so long! It has been a really rough past few days. About five miles from town we got to see the sun for the first time in days! I got some pictures of the view but it stinks I missed the three views I wanted to see so bad.
Once we got into town we went to the gas station and then the super 8 hotel which is the nicest place I’ve slept at (other than Ohio) since I started the trail. I couldn’t get over how nice it was and that I finally escaped the rain. I couldn’t wait to take a shower so I could stop smelling like a wet sewer rat. We did all the town chores like laundry and getting food. It involved crossing the highway several times which is right between the trail and our hotel which sucked. Finally at 11pm I got to sleep. It took forever to get everything we needed to done. I’m so happy to be out of the rain for once! It was raining when we walked to food so I still got wet in town. My feet are hurting way worse than I thought they were so I might take a Zero day tomorrow.
Happy Trails!
Des Hikes Thru 