Samwise Hikes the Appalachian Trail! - Trail Journal -
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May 7, Ash Gap - mile 368.7

On this journey of mine, I have learned three truths: I am filthy, I am rancid, and I am sore. But I am loving life!

Today's hike was the most physically taxing of any day yet on the trail. It was not, by any means, my hardest day on the trail (that was last Friday, with the ankle pain) but in terms of the physical exertion required to climb 15 steep hills, knolls, knobs, lumps, plus the final big mahooga, Roan Mountain, today was king of tough. Actually, I am camped with two other hikers tonight, just .9 miles short of the summit, but none of us is sad about that! I hope to get up early and catch the sunrise tomorrow from the top. Assuming those forecasted thunderstorms don't move in, of course.

I am so tired tonight that I couldn't even cook supper; instead I put down a power bar, a snickers and a granola bar with lots of peanut butter. Now I'm dunking my second biscotti into a cup of Gatorade, which doesn't quite have the taste sensation that Lipton soup did, but it's still ok. Actually, truth be known, I didn't have the energy to go down this monster mountain to get water for cooking! If it was closer, I could do it, but I'm too tired to trek any farther tonight.

I'm so glad to report that these antibiotics seem to be working, even though they also upset my stomach. I have also realized that both my ankles were probably infected, but the right one didn't have time to get as sore as the left, since it only got bitten the day before I got into town. The left one was probably moving up into my calf and causing all that calf pain, too, not a strained muscle as I had supposed. I met a guy on the trail yesterday who works as a nurse, and we were talking about the infection, known clinically as cellulitis. He mentioned in passing that if I had ignored it long enough, I could have lost toes or even a foot. Yikes! I don't think I possibly could have ignored it that long, though. The pain of just wearing my boot was enough to drive me crazy.