June 1 Mile 552

After four relaxing days with my Sweety here in SW Virginia, we returned to the trail. But in the four days we had a lot of fun. Cisco and I took my Sweety back to some if the places we hiked through earlier. We went to Grayson Highlands and saw and petted the ponies and colts, went to Wytheville and saw a movie- ate popcorn and drank a big coke- no worries about calories and fattening butter on popcorn here- went back to Damascus to show my Sweety "trail town" and buy stuff at the outfitters. And then showed her some of the places we camped. Also went to a Va. State Park with a curious name - Hungry Mother State Park. The story goes like this - a couple of hundred years ago settlers moved into the area and the Native Americans supposedly attacked this homestead where a woman lived with her very young daughter- a toddler. They were taken hostage and the mother and daughter later escaped. But they had no food and somehow the little girl was able to get back to a town saying the words "hungry mother, hungry mother". So a park was named. I think the poor woman did not survive when they returned to find her.
Anyway, after four restful days we resupplied and started off again. My Sweety got to hike with us for the first mile, so she had a chance to get a feel for the trail. Our packs were incredibly heavy! It was all the food and our desire to spice up our normal dishes, which have not been very nutritous. Too much pasta. So we carried frozen steak meat for the first day and lots of cut veggies and then built a fire- even though it had rained heavily earlier in the day. It was the best camping dinner we have had- even better than the Pizza! Cisco said that even with the extra pounds to carry, "It was worth the 'weight'. Very funny.
The first day back was tough - we did about 14 miles- with lots of ups and downs and a heavy downpour in the afternoon, the heaviest rainstorm we have had since we began. Our rain jackets worked beatifully, but the rain was so heavy and we were hiking through cow pastures, with lots of cowpies, that our boots and socks were soaked. Takes awhile to dry out heavy wet wool socks. Finally got to our camping area just before 7 and had the delicious dinner mentioned, eating in the dark- but it was grand. Need to do this more often.
Today, all day, my right knee hurt, same as before. As I have mentioned before, not everyone is able to complete a thru- hike -often medical or physical problems cause them to stop. I thought today, I may not be able to continue if this gets worse, and I have done about all I can do medically foe both knees. I was discouraged. Maybe tomorrow will be a better knee day.