June16 Mile 734

We've now gone 1/3 of the way to Maine and we have covered 1/2 of Va., the state with the most AT miles. And tonight I feel everyone of them. It was a very hot day. It started out fine, but with a full pack of food for a 5 day hike to Buena Vista, Va. and the heat, it took it's toll on me by mid afternoon. Hoped to go about 18 miles, but only made 15 due to  to the heat and the lateness of the day. Also, I should start a new feature for my blog: "Pain of the day" Today I had several. Starting out we had to go uphill, as usual. My left calf down to my ankle has been hurting early in the day if we have an immediate up. That happened as we left Daleville. And them my left foot started to go numb! What caused that? That's a new one for me. Was it my new hiking shoes? They weren't that tight. So every few hundred yards I was stopping and taking off my left shoe to rub my foot.  Luckily, this ended by late morning. Whew! But then my old ailment came back- pain in the right knee. And it lasted all day. Haven't had that for a couple of weeks.  Is it  caused by too much pack weight coming out if town? Dont know. Back ache. Found a makeshift campsite, but now, starting today, we are hiking by and along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Last evening, Cisco and I walked back to our motel from eating dinner and he walked thru some grass near our room, looked down and saw he had 6 ticks on him!! Big ones, though, so no Lyme disease. Got them all off in a hurry. He's a tick magnet, I guess.
Had a great spot for camping, finding a makeshift spot near the Parkway. Cisco walked up about 100 feet further and found a picnic table! An overlook to a beautiful valley! And most remarkable- a trashcan! I will never take them for granted again. You have to pack it in and pack it out. So trashcans along the way are a real treasure. Get rid of the old stuff and shed the weight. Had a great view from the picnic table, saw a storm off in the distance and watched a beautiful sunset. Couldn't have planned it better if we tried. While we have our aches and pains and uphills and rainy days out here, the special things, the views, the mountain streams, the forest, the nice people you meet (and there are many) outweigh  all that might bring you down and make it all worthwhile.




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