Into Pearisburg

June 7 - Into town

Woke up to rain. Sigh. Waited but it didn't go away. Got up and packed. 

I'm out of alcohol wipes so yesterday, I used my cooking alcohol (methyl hydrate) to swab the areas of my feet where I need the tape to stick (the wipes dried the skin nicely). It didn't work. So today I used water. That didn't seem to work either.  There's a Rite-Aid pharmacy here and I hope I don't have to buy 100 wipes. In Gatlinburg, they gave me free samples!  

It was a relatively easy 8 miles to town. Everything was wet. There was grass along the trail and what must have been a solid mile of Alder tunnel where I was just doused with rain water continuously. Not much you can do but shrug and say, Reality - Gottaluvit!  So I was doused with water and my shoes were soaked and it was squish, squish, squish all the way down the final 2000 feet to the road. 

I must work on my Yogi-ing skills. From the trailhead on the road, it was about .8 miles down the hill to Main Street in Pearisburg. A guy in a van who had turned around and was clearly waiting for this old dude to walk up his driveway to get driven somewhere, asked if I needed anything and dummy me, I said no! I should've said, "Yes, a ride to the bottom of the hill, please."

I must reduce my load. I must figure out why my pack is hurting me. I must get my feet in working order.