A nice quiet night indoors at the Mountain Crossing bunk house. Woke up at 6:30 and had a breakfast consisting of multiple varieties of danishes & pastries. A couple of the guys I stayed with left early in an attempt to do a 20 mile day. My knee felt better in the morning, but I was not going to try for 20 miles, instead I hung around Mountain Crossing until their store opened at 8:30 and I could buy some ibuprofen. I departed Neel Gap at 8:34 with a plan of doing 11.5 miles to Low Gap shelter. I finally made it sometime around 4:30.
While it stayed completely overcast and foggy all day there was no more rain, which made things much more comfortable. The trail was still muddy, and the rocks were slick, but the trail wasn’t flooded. Three full hiking days and I’ve yet to see the sun, the moon, or the stars. Right out of Neel Gap was the first of several big climbs of the day, and my knee started hurting within the first mile. Before long I had another ache, this one on the leg opposite the knee, right where the foot bends as it meets the leg. It feels really tight and stiff. Might have started because of walking awkwardly on the knee. There was a lot of up and down hills today, it was a pretty rough day. I met up with Dancer about 5 miles in, he’s just retired, has his truck along the trail and is doing a piece of the trail at a time, until he feels like going home. So, with my sore knee and foot, I was walking the same pace as a 61 year old with a 45 pound pack. We made it to Low Gap though. Tomorrow looks like a relatively flat 9 miles to a road where I can get into an actual town, I think I’ll be ready for my first 0 day.
There’s a bunch of people here at Low Gap. The hi lights include Kitch who is doing a week or so on the trail and sharing his Moonshine, Liz who is attempting a thru-hike, and an ultra-thru hiker who is going from Florida into Canada and beyond.