The power of positive thinking, Obie.
The first day back - the Sunday after Trail Days - me and the Tribe planned to slack pack from Woods Hole Hostel the 10 miles into Pearisburg. 10 miles with no pack weight sounded fine by me.
We got to the hostel around noon and I was eager to get going but we were still anxiously awaiting the remainder of the tribe (when I arrived it was only Candy Pants and myself - Barbarossa and Red Knees decided to go straight to Pearisburg). When 1:30pm rolled around with no sight of them I decided I had to start walking - I had no idea how quickly I would move on my foot, even with fairly easy terrain, especially with the quickly approaching rain.
At first I was skeptical. My foot felt stiff and unused to tackling hills. I walked slower. Eventually I worked out the kinks and began to pick up the pace - okay this feels pretty good - but every so often a rock would hit my foot the wrong way and scare the crap out of me, making me slow down again to a snails pace. Once I hit the downhill into town I was feeling pretty good and was making good time. The terrain was beautiful and green and the switchbacks helped keep the trail from descending too steeply.
And then I was looking into the eyes of a black bear. Just standing right there in the trail. We both froze and gave each other our most impressive stink eye for a solid second before he bounded up the hill.
Breathe, Obie. Breathe.
It was FUDGING AWESOME! I forgotten foot and practically skipped all the way into town, well ahead of my anticipated schedule. Woohoo! And to top it off there was a car at the edge of town with a few hikers who drove me to the hostel. Brilliant.
The rest of the Tribe didn't roll in until well after 10:00pm (apparently they hadn't begun hiking until after 4:00pm - thank god I left early!) and they were up for a while but I retired early.
The next morning Red Knees and I got an early start (just after 7:30am) so we could take it slow as we headed out of town. I didn't know how many miles I would do - I planned to listen to my body and play it by ear.
First we did 7 miles to the first shelter. Feeling pretty good. Lets keep going. Then we did a few more miles to a campsite. I retaped my foot (the four day old tape was getting loose) and felt good. Lets walk to the campsite that would put us at 15 miles for the day. Perfect. After am hour we felt pretty fantastic. So we hiked 6 more miles to get to a campsite called "The Captain's". 21 miles in total and I felt fantastic. Super slow pace with an early start really did the trick.
"The Captain's" is actually the backyard of a trail angel that lives directly across the river from the AT. He lets hikers camp in his backyard and provides them with ice cold sodas. Brilliant. The best part? You have to take a zip line across the river to get to his house. Oh yeah.
I didn't sleep very well but woke up happy and remarkably not sore and ready to take on the day. Today was tough - from mile 3 to about mile 7 was covered with jagged rocks which made it tough to get good balance. With my foot getting sore I took probably half a dozen breaks and walked at a glacial pace.
We decided to only do 12 miles today to get right before a big climb up to the next ridge line. Finally, a few members of the Tribe showed up (Candy Pant and Two Pack) and let us know that the rest of the team was pretty far back. But knowing the 40 mile days they put in? They'll be here in no time.
We are going to play tomorrow by ear. Maybe 12 miles, maybe 14, maybe 20, who knows. Lets see what the foot says. GOD does it feel good to be back!!
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