While not everyone slept well in our smelly, snore-filled hostile, I found it rather cozy.
I sleep through snoring, but for some reason the sound of a twig breaking outside my tent always wakes me right up.
Breakfast was blueberry pancakes with biscuits and fruit, provided yet again by the venerable Pirate. If you're ever by the Walasi-Yi Inn at Neels Gap in Georgia you can see my mug on the wall with the trail name Tim gave me on the spot. As my first trail name (I'm not counting Have You Peed Today), he dubbed me Guts. This was a little because I've been trudging on through a lot of knee pain, but mostly because I've been burping nonstop. My stomach is used to a very small amount of food per day, and I've been forced to very quickly ramp that up. This, apparently, is one of the ways in which burps are born.
Moving on, I gave Tim his first trail name: Mr. Fantastic. This is due to the fact that if you're around him for more than 15 minutes you're prone to see him stretching.
As for the actual hiking today, we accidentally shot past out planned lunch spot/water source/camp. that was supposed to be a 5.5 mile hike in which I would decide if my knees were good enough to continue. Since we blew past it though, our next decent campsite put us at a total of 11.5 miles for the day.
I was initially leery of my ability to go that far with my knees. After continually altering the way my pack was adjusted, and the way I walked uphill as well as downhill, I managed to get through the rest of the trek with almost no knee pain.
Still, at the end of the 11.5 my feet were finally feeling it. No joint paint, but serious muscle exhaustion.
Thus, after quickly pitching my tent in the remaining drizzle, I enjoyed some pepperoni and cheese bought from Walasi-Yi, read some of my book, and am now ready to turn in. Here's hoping tomorrow will find my feet and right hip rejuvenated, and my left knee even further along on the mend. Tomorrow we're setting out around 7am with an ideal goal of 13.5 miles. I've been surprised by things so far, so maybe that will happen too. If so we're right on course!
On that note, I think I hear someone doing Arnold Schwarzenegger impressions 100 feet away at a larger camp. I think I'll go investigate real quick before I PTFO.