START LOCATION: Hurricane Mountain Shelter
FINISH LOCATION: Partnership Shelter
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 19.7
TRIP MILEAGE: 527.2
MILES TO GO: 1,651.9
It poured overnight at the Hurricane. I was up at sunrise and out on
the trail by 8... Wicked early and I was the bunny. The terrain was
great in the 9 miles leading up to the Trimpi Shelter, where I broke
for lunch at 11:30. Moonpie, Little Brown and Sofa meandered in around
noon. Sofa rolled in with his pockets full of Morel (sp?) mushrooms.
He'd been picking them for over an hour. He had a morel burrito for
lunch. We're all moderately confident in Sofa's wild mushroom
identification skills... He's still alive as of this writing.
The afternoon 10 miler to Partnership was a little rough. It started
out nice... A big open grass field where cows were grazing. There was
also an ancient yellow school bus all overgrown by vines off to the
side. It reminded me of Into The Wild, a book I've never read, a movie
I've never seen... I actually don't plan on it either. The kid was
just a big jackass. After that, the hills weren't bad, but there was
just lots of rocks and roots. My feet and ankles were thrashed during
the last couple miles into Partnership.
Partnership shelter is reminicient of the Fontana Hilton... Large,
running water, a shower. But the best part? There's a phone at the
visitor center you can call and have pizza delivered from nearby
Marion, VA. Fantastic.
My feet are throbbing tonight... Especially on the right. I have a
giant blister under my right ring toe, which is it even called that? I
think it's the piggy that went to market. The one next to my pinky
toe... That's for sure. Anyway, I popped the sucker, cleaned it and
Gold Bonded the heck out of it, so hopefully I'll be good for my 10
mile Nero into Atkins tomorrow.
-natedog
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