When we last left Adventure Girl, her backpack was hanging somewhere near Carvins Code Reservoir, VA. Since that time, Adventure Girl has surpassed the 700 mile mark. Adventure girl is a third of the way to her destination. I am pausing here for the applause Adventure Girl deserves.
As I type this, I am recovering from mowing the lawn. Two hours of mowing our hilly lawn full of bumps from moles and chipmunks is enough to wipe me out for the rest of the day. I cannot help but laugh, when I think how I would perform on the trail with Adventure Girl. “What do you mean we’ve only gone 1 mile? I think your pedometer is broken.” Yeah, I’ll stick to mowing lawns and leave the hiking to Adventure Girl. She’s had quite a journey this past week.
You may recall last week, Adventure Girl mentioned the ponies. Specifically, she mentioned the ponies licking the salt off her leg. As you can see, she wasn’t kidding. Take a minute to note how good Adventure Girl looks after two months of hiking. She looks better than me after two hours of mowing.
On Easter Sunday, Adventure Girl posted an entry in her journal from Daleville, VA. She was enjoying two zero days, which included attending an Easter Sunday church service. (Her Mom and Dad are so proud.) She mentioned her hikes along Dragons Tooth, McAffee Knob and Tinker Cliffs were foggy and gray but enjoyable. She wrote about the flowers and trees blooming, creating beautiful scenery, as well as acting as a natural sunscreen.
Adventure Girl’s next journal post was on Thursday. She writes of her trouble with shin splints. Though I did not intend to cut and paste my way through Adventure Girl’s travels, the fact of the matter is this is Adventure Girl’s adventure. Sharing her journey with you should include her words, whenever possible. Having said that, please enjoy an excerpt from her journal:
The next day headed out hoping for the best, but I realized the pain was probably going to be here for a while. Upon arriving at the shelter just past the one I stayed at [prior], I decided I need to have a short day. I also cried a little not, because of the pain, but because I didn’t know what I was going to do. I really enjoy the people I am hiking with and I don’t want to lose them. I also don’t want to lose the current schedule I have for myself. Mostly I was just mad a my body for being “weak” and failing me. Even though I have been asking a lot from it, maybe even too much… Anyways we pulled a short 13 mile day and spent the rest of the afternoon pulling the legs of the other hikers that showed up. I was so fun!
We also came up with the brilliant plan to night hike as to avoid some of the humidity, or so we thought. It turned out to be a super humid night… sweating at 3 am? Really??? The idea was to only hike 13 miles again, but when I looked at the book after we had already started I realized that if we did 13 miles that day, the next day we would either have to do 10 miles or 22.7. The 10 mile day seemed too short and the 22 mile day isn’t the rest my shins needed. So, we decided to hike to the shelter past the 13 mile one in order to have an 18 mile day. Not exactly restful… but we did take our sweet time having done the night hiking we had plenty of day to kill. So we did.
When we got to The Jenning Creek road crossing we decided to try for a hitch, in order to get to the camp ground a mile or so down the road. I got us a hitch; which was a feat, because the road was pretty dead. We saw two cars. One as we were coming down to the road and the other one was the one we got a ride from. He was a super nice guy, with a really small car with all of us in there it really did look and smell like the circus was coming to town. He drove us all the way to the camp store only to find it closed with a hours sign that said “Monday-Thursday- Opened by chance.” By chance?! That is no way to run a business…
Well I’m telling you this guy was the best guy ever he offered to take us to the gas station down the road. Mind you this was the gas station he had just passed and not only that he was coming to the area to fish and hadn’t even started yet! SO we basically ate everything we could find at the Shell and it was beautiful! He let us hang out at the station for a while eating and just talking. It was nice and very relaxing. Finally, it was time for him to take us back and for us to continue on our way. We got going again around 9:30 (night hiking is soo great! The days feel really long!) and got to the 13 mile shelter before 11, with only 5 miles left in the day I did what any logical person would do, I lounged. I kicked back and just chilled until 12:15 when I decided I wanted to have the rest of the afternoon to chill at the next shelter. Most of the next 5 miles to the shelter were up hill, which I LOVED! Uphill doesn’t really bother my shins. The last little bit before the shelter however was down hill, I pretty much hated that. But I still arrived at the shelter early and the best part was a huge storm rolled through AFTER I was already in the shelter. That was awesome! Being dry is the key to happiness out here. Seriously.
Adventure Girl continues to battle her shin splints, but she seems to be listening to her body and allowing herself to rest. Even with the rest-time, based on her last SPOT check, Adventure Girl has covered at least 55 miles since Daleville, VA. Here’s to Adventure Girl. May her shins heal and her journey continue. See you next weekend, Readers!
Lenore's Thoughts Exactly 
Yikes…700 miles…my shins hurt just thinking about it!
Wendy
Me too, Wendy. I’m in awe of her. ~ Lenore
“The 10 mile day seemed too short.”
I walked about ten miles in Manhattan this past March and I’ve been bragging about it ever since. I guess I’ll stop now.
What an unforgettable experience this is for her, and what an amazing accomplishment it will be. Thank you, Lenore, for keeping us posted on her progress.