Clark’s Ferry Shelter to Rausch Gap Shelter
Miles Hiked: 24.7
AT Milage: 1178.0
This morning I woke up at 7am. I let myself sleep as long as I needed to because I was getting such good sleep and my body really needed to recover from the 33 mile day still. When I woke up I was feeling significantly better and ready for the 24 mile day we had planned. I got on trail around 8am. The rocks weren’t terrible today but there were lots of them. The trail flowed a pretty flat Ridgeline all day except for one drop into a valley and a climb out of it. I stopped after 6 miles at a shelter to take care of my feet that were hurting pretty bad. I stayed there for an hour just resting and stretching before walking 6 more miles in my Chacos to a very large Creek. At the creek I iced my feet and shins in the freezing water. It felt so good. My shins are starting to bother me a lot more lately, but icing them whenever I can seems to help a lot. I spent an hour at the creek before I hiked on. Cocoa, Flip, and Toucan were there taking ice baths as well. Flip and Toucan went all the way in and sat in the water for a while. The 1000 foot climb back up to the ridge line wasn’t bad at all. It was the first 1000 foot climb I’ve had to do in a long time. We have been getting spoiled with relatively flat elevation for a long time. I went six more miles before I had to sit down and take a break. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it to the shelter today because my feet were hurting so bad, but I did. I found out there was a large Creek by the shelter which motivated me because I wanted to soak my feet again. At the shelter I set up my tent by Flamingo’s, ate my dinner, and fell asleep quickly. I was exhausted from the long day of hiking. I didn’t arrive at camp until 7:30pm.
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