A Snail's Pace

After three days of a literally blistering pace, I woke up at Beech Gap, crawled out of my tent, stood up, and it felt like someone had shoved a red hot poker in my knee.

"Mr Garlinghouse, on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate this pain

"11"

It felt like another inflamed tendon. It hurt every time I put weight on it, and it felt slightly better after I walked on it a bit. I delved into my first aid kit, took some naproxin and some norco, and hit the trail.

Slowly

It became clear that I was not going to be doing any 10+ mile days any time soon. So I urged Kim, who was clearly able to do 12+ mile days, to hike on.

I went 7 miles to Betty Creek Gap. A bucolic clearing in a rhododendron thicket with a spring close to where I set up my tent, a stream a short distance away, and a road nearby if I decided to bail. I decided to take a full day off there. A"zero" in hiker parlance - for the number of miles hiked that day.

As I settled in, "Cheese Whizz" set up next to me, and a troop of Boy Scouts came into the gap and set up. I traded a Snickers bar for an ace wrap with one of the scoutmasters, started a camp fire, and had a good time BSin' with Cheese Whizz till it was time to turn in.