North Carolina

I woke up feeling pretty good it's been the first night that I've slept all the way through the night expect maybe to roll over a few times. No major slipping around, no condensation, nothing. My pinky toe is numb and I have no idea why. I'm trying to rub it but it still feels wrong. I used my sleeping bag liner and i was able to stay warm enough all night long.

While getting water Ben came out from the trail to the shelter, I'm surprised to keep running into him, I keep figuring he's way ahead of me since I'm going so slowly. After getting on the trail for the day something bad happened. That rash that's been hanging out on my hands came back 10 fold. It was agonizing and drove me crazy, I broke down multiple times that day crying and it got so bad that I did actually scream. It was the worst! Throughout the day it spread up my arms and a bit on my chest. Multiple people have me various creams and pills to try to stop the pain and itching and eventually I ran into a nurse who was sure I had heat rash and I do believe that she is right. It felt like my hands were on fire. I just wanted to go home, it didn't help that it was so hot and sunny that day either with no clouds in the sky. Everytime there was sunlight on my hands it just burned more. My hands were so swollen, bumpy, and red, it was miserable. The only time I actually got relief was when I was soaking my hands in the ice cold water of the streams coming out of the mountain. As the sun started going down my hands calmed down quite a bit and felt like the worst sunburn.

I did cross into North Carolina today. That felt like a great accomplishment. Most of today was a long and steady 2,000 foot gain in elevation. I'll be staying around 5,000 foot elevation for awhile now acording to my guide book. I ended up going 11.3 miles to the Deep Gap campsite. So far in North Carolina they do not want you camping along the trail and want you to stay in official campsites or shelters. I had to have help setting my bear bag up because of the condition my hands were in. There was a small dirt road leading to the gap with a handful of cars. Probably section hikers. One of them drove around beeping at dusk annoyingly. Someone had left a box of Trail Magic at noon according to the note but it only had tash in it when I got there. It's suppose to start raining tonight and on and off for the next 3 days. Hopefully round 2 in the rain goes well.

Tonight I'm camped at Deep Gap at mile 85.1 with 2104.7 left to go.