I woke up today determined to experiment with some things concerning my severe foot pain.  After hiking for a while I noticed that on downhill steps I was landing on the ball of my foot and big toe– areas that have been bruised and very painful.  So I concentrated on landing heel, then outside of foot, and then to the toe and inside.  I think that I may be on to something because the pain in those areas was much less today.

The weather was perfect and the hiking was easy and flat in the first half of the day.  After ten miles I was feeling pretty good and joined some other hikers to this nearby campground for some real lunch.  Out of twelve of us only myself and Stream  made it out of the camp ground.  They had a pool and other delights that sucked everyone else into a nearo (nearly zero).  I had a double bacon cheeseburger with egg, fries, two corn dogs, milk shake, gateraid, Mountain Dew, and ice cream for dessert. Probably a 3000 calorie lunch.  No problemo.  I have lost 30 pounds so far and am continuing to drop.  Some guys have nothing left to lose and are burning muscle.  Twenty miles of this shit requires 7000 to 8000 calories a day to break even.  We can’t carry that much.  So when you get a chance to order out you go freaking nuts.  You should have seen the normal campers look at us in feeding frenzy mode.  Especially the females amongst us– they really get the one eyed look.

Anyhow, I got out by two without fussing with the pool or swim hole.  Stream and I were immediately rewarded with an 1100 foot climb followed by a monster mountain– 2600 foot climb over four and half miles.  Who ever said that Virginia was easy and flat should be thrown off that fucking mountain.  Those two climbs had me rolling into a shelter at about 730 pm.  Rough second half day.  Maybe I should have got sucked into the pool– except they have to climb those mountains in the morning.  Ha ha.  Happy trails.