Weather: 50s/30s and sunny
Sleeping in a hotel last night was AMAZING! Shared a bed with Abby. It was soooo good to sleep on a mattress in a heated room. Got to pee in a toilet and use toilet paper as often as I wanted!
Got a late start from the Seasons Inn. Ate breakfast (a cheese and cherry Danish) in the room and posted to my blog. The owners of the hotel were SUPER nice. I had hot cocoa in the lobby and met thru-hikers Jake and Goat. Southern boys.
Eight of us piled into Ron's van and took a very crowded ride back to Mountain Crossings. That's such a neat place and somewhere I've been looking forward to visiting. I decided to ship my convertible pants home in favor of my legging/hiking short combo. Since I now don't have any pant pockets, I needed a way to carry my wallet and phone other than a Ziplock since I almost left my Ziplock "wallet" at the Foodland in Blairsville. I bought an orange 1 liter stuff sack from Mountain Crossings. I also bought a bag of Sour Patch Kids and ate that for lunch. Here's a photo of Little Foot (Mike), Tigger (Kate), me, Simba (Abby), Chain Gang (Chris), Kilt Man, Kim, and Oliver in front of Mountain Crossings.
We set off from Mountain Crossings to hike to Whitley Gap Shelter. My knees are hurting pretty badly so it was a tough hike, but the weather was pretty good and we had some beautiful views.
The shelter was much further from the trail than we thought. On the bright side, it was a pretty green hike in a landscape that looked like a movie set. We were all hurting and just ready to be done for the day.
We were expecting nighttime lows in the teens, so I wore nearly all the clothes I had. I also took 800 mls of Ibuprofen from a friend before I went to bed. I slept warm and sound. I'm still waking up in the middle of the night each night to pee in the woods. That's super annoying (and cold!), but what can you do? At least I'm hydrated.
Best Thing: Ate new food and had good food.
Looking Forward To: A short 5 mile hike tomorrow!
Looking good, Hollywood! Ibuprofen and my knees are good friends. If you get a chance look for some Glucosamine Chondroitin supplements for your knees. I've been using it for years now and swear by it. Great for knees, joints and connective tissue. Hang in there and stay warm!!
ReplyDeleteI second what Shawn said! I met a few people who have completed thru hikes and they all swore by Glucosamine Chondroitin. They also told me to make sure there was some kind of additive in it like... Mgm? I have no idea. Apparently that helps with absorption.
ReplyDeleteRight on, Nita! The additive is MSM.
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