400!

The first 100 miles seemed to take forever but the last few are falling fast. Mallwalker, Jitter and I made it to 400 today a little after we climbed out of our overnight stay at the Mountain Harbor B&B. It is rated #1 in the AT Platinum Blazing guide book and for good reason. Our host Mary made a breakfast spread that looks like Thanksgiving. Pancakes, sausage, tomato pie, hash brown casserole, homemade cherry struedel, biscuits and gravy and fresh fruit. She looked so proud when we piled everything she offered onto our plates. We waddled out of there with happy bellies but slow legs.

The terrain for today’s hike was pretty tame but a little frustrating they way the trail hooks in a big circle and dumps you back even closer to the town you just left. To stay sane out here you should never look at the actual map of the trail – just waypoints and elevation plots. It seems like we are more often headed east and west. So, after our 17 mile day we were back where we started. Ahhhh. Thanks AT!

We were feeling pretty beat up today so we took a long lunch at Mountaineer Falls. After lunch, I went to play in the waterfall and immediately fell on my behind pretty hard and landed with both of my elbows on the rock. I was stunned and worried I had broken something but I was just bruised. So – lesson learned. See pretty waterfall. Don’t go play in pretty waterfall.

We headed back on trail after lunch intending to do 9 more to make it to the next shelter but we started to drag pretty hard about 2 miles from our goal and decided to camp at a nice spot along a good sized stream. The big days in the Roan Highlands were still in our legs and it caught up fast today. We set up camp, ate dinner and worked on our feet.

It might be the warmer temps or the 400 plus miles we just walked but our feet are yelling back. It was time to give them some love. We did a nice soak in the cold creek and then lathered them with coconut oil and wrapped them in our nice clean wool socks. I can’t tell you how good they feel right now tucked in my sleeping bag and getting the next 10 hours off duty.