11-28-12

Days since my thruhike began: 224
AT miles hiked today: 15.3
Total AT miles hiked: 2027.0
Miles to complete my thruhike: 157.2

Our goal today was to meet Karen, AKA Hikermom, at Bearwallow Gap on the Blue Ridge Parkway. She picked us up and took us to her house near Daleville. She will bring us back here tomorrow so we can hike back to Daleville with only a day pack. Yay for slackpacking and thank you, Karen and family!

We had lunch at the Bryant Ridge Shelter which was huge and had a loft and was awesome. I wish we could have made it there to stay last night, but it was five more miles, and it would have meant around three more hours of night hiking. I couldn't bring myself to do it and I'm glad we stopped when we did.

My knee is helped by Eagle Eye's brace, but she needed it back today because her knee acted up without the brace. As I climbed a mountain I watched the moon rise above the hills on one side of me and the sun set on my other side. In the summer I wouldn't have seen any of that through the leaves on the trees. We only hiked an hour in the cold, clear night and made it to the road by 6:30. After Karen picked us up I asked her to go to Krogers to get the rest of my antibiotics, but they didn't have the right kind of knee brace so she took us to Walmart. I got my own knee brace, just a band to go under my kneecap. I don't know why it helps, but it takes the acute pain away and I can hike in relative comfort. I can finish my hike, but I'm feeling like I am wearing my body out. Hey, at least I look good!