Samwise Hikes the Appalachian Trail! - Trail Journal -
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June 20, Pocosin Fire Road - mile 894

I walked for eleven hours today & then my legs gave out & my sanity was gone, so I have camped here, 2 1/2 miles sort of my destination. My legs are sore simply from a lot of hiking, although my ankle is particularly sore - who knows why. And I almost lost my sanity today because ALL DAY LONG, gnats buzzed constantly in my ears. Constantly without ceasing. An incessant high-pitched whine in my ears. I'm sure it's a frequently employed method of torture of POW's.

  I'm told that the high was supposed to be 92* today, although I'm not sure that's actually for the mountains. I was certainly hot & I felt like I was swimming for much of the day, but I still don't think it was really that hot. I just realized also that the summer solstice is tomorrow. How can it be the longest day of the year already! I have three more months of hiking to do, & I need all the daylight hours I can get!

I just braved the blizzard of gnats outside to go put up my rain fly on the tent. I've been sleeping all week without it. but tonight thunder is rumbling in the distance. Even though directly above me is still blue sky, I feel like I'm being warned & I would be dumb not to heed it.

My heart is sad tonight because one of my trail friends, Sue, decided that she has to end her hike. her foot is in so much pain that she simply can't take it any more. It's an extraordinarily strange situation that she discovered back in Pearisburg when she went to the doctor to get it checked. When they took x-rays, they discovered she has a sewing needle lodged in her foot - and it's probably been there about 40 years. So she went home to see her own doctor about doing surgery to remove it & he told her it would do more harm than good. He also said she could keep hiking til the pain got too bad to stand it any more - but unfortunately, that point has come much faster than anyone expected. So we said good bye at a road crossing today, & I tried not to dwell on it as I continued to hike. I know one of the reasons some people quit is that everyone they know around them is forced to quit, too. I keep holding on to a naive hope that all of us will make it to Katahdin but of course we won't. It doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye though.