Day 7 - Exhaustion

Today's been a hard day. That beautiful sunrise turned into a harsh, hot sun. I think I drank 7 liters of water and by the end of my hike I wasn't feeling well. 11 miles today from Tray Mountain Shelter to Dick's Creek Gap where I got a shuttle to the Blueberry Patch Hostel. Primitive place but I'm so grateful to be here. The tiny shower and toilet is an outhouse size building about 30 feet from the little building that is the hostel with about 4 bunk beds. But I'm clean and that's all I care about. It's run by a Christian couple who only take donations.

Today was my first food package pick-up. Thank you so much Lucy. You are wonderful!!!

Today is the first day when I've questioned my physical ability to do this. I'm totally wiped out. For sure my camera goes home tomorrow. Sorry to all of you that disappoints. :( The food is the problem. I can't carry up to 4 days of food and 4 liters of water at a time. Maybe a few weeks later I'll be stronger and can get it back. My kids and even a few friends insist I take the food.

I don't carry a stove which would mean carrying fuel and a pan-more weight. I eat cold food.

Hikers get water out of small streams and use some form of purifying system. I use Aquamira tablets. Takes 15 to 30 min until I can drink. Rockin Robin just drinks the water out of the stream. She thinks everyone gets sick on the trail whether you purify or not. I'm worried about her; think she's asking for trouble.

When the day is cloudy I wear a nifty hair bandanna which hides increasingly bad to worse hair days. When the sun shines brightly, like today, I wear my baseball hat to shield my eyes. I have a bandanna tied around my wrist to wipe sweat and anything else that drips. My feet have done well. It's my knees and hip that hurts.

After great debate, I decided to wear my lightweight trail shoes and they have worked well so far. My heavy hiking boots would have been terrible on my knees.

Tomorrow I'm taking an easy day of about 6 miles, but some steep climbs in those miles and I'll have a full pack of food for the next 4 to 5 days. Did I mention I'm exhausted?

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