Justus Creek, 1pm I've been resting my tootsies for about 20 minutes -- my longest break on the hike so far. There's some youth group here, too. They're all sitting on white trash bags and eating hot dogs and burgers off a grill. I don't know how they got a bag of briquets and jug of gatorade out here!
Spent part of the day hiking along with August and Nutter, both swell people. I hope they make it all the way to Maine. Michelle, too, who was having such a hard time when I passed her on the trail. She seemed like such a nice person in the five minutes we talked. I hope I make as good an impression on people I so briefly meet.
Part of that companionable hiking with August and Nuttere was spent sans shoes; a big relief, lemme tell you. I never did get around to replacing my hiking boots after I left them on BART, so I came to Georgia with my little leather Nike low-top hikers. While they're fine at home on dayhikes, they definitely are not working here. I don't know if my feet are swelling or what, but my toes are cramped on the downhills (and there are a lot of downhill stretches) and the sides are rubbing against my ankle bones, especially on my right foot, enough that I almost took out my pocket knife to saw off part of the shoe. Almost. I still might, because the top layers of skin are gone and it's oozy now. Blisters on my little and ring toes, big toes and index toes , balls of my feet. My miserable feet are slowing me down considerably. Fortunately, it's my only complaint -- well, and not having anything hot to eat in the dead of winter! When does spring get to this part of the country, anyway? And what are those little grey birds I see bustling about?
From here it's only 2.5 miles to the Gooch Gap Shelter, so I think I'll go further along the trail before I stop for the night (August is headed to Gooch). Let's see where another five hours gets me.

In the megamid, 7:30pm -- I had just changed into my sleep clothes when a kid, a Lhasa Apso, and a mom come strolling by. "What's that?" the kid asks him mom (re my food bag hanging from a tree). "That's to keep it safe from dogs like that!" I said. Mom laughed. "How far thataway is ... anything?" I asked her. She said I was about half a mile from Hwy 60. The road and Woody Gap! If I leave around 9a tomorrow I should be in Neels Gap by 4 or 5p.
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