Last night quite a few northbound hikers arrived to the shelter area and took a while to quiet down. But, as hiker midnight (aka darkness) approached, they dutifully quieted and went to sleep. And suddenly all seemed right with the world.
I may have been the first awake in the whole camp and was up before 7am packing. Ryan woke up soon after and did the same. He said his Achilles’ tendons were still sore this morning. We discussed what to do and decided to hike on for a few miles and see how he felt as he warmed up. He had noticed the soreness on the second day but didn’t know what was causing it. Last night he determined it was the back of his shoes wrinkling and pressing on this spot as he hiked. He removed a piece of stiff plastic bracing from the outside of the shoe last night and was hopeful this would solve the issue.
As we walked he noticed things didn’t get better, but weren’t getting worse either. After hiking a couple hours we decided he seemed okay to get to the road where a little store called Brushy Mountain Outpost was. The store had a deli/grill and allowed hikers to camp behind the store for free with food purchase. At least here we could rest, figure out what to do next, and importantly, not run out of food.
The last couple miles were a road walk and Ryan decided he would be better off walking in either his socks or camp shoes.
As soon as he took off the boots he had some relief from the pain. At that point we agreed he had to have different shoes so we decided on an alternative plan.
Our plan: Ryan would stay the night at Brushy Mountain Outpost and I would hike on. He would order new shoes and get a shuttle the next morning to Bear Garden Hiker Hostel, about 30 miles further south. I would hike two days and meet him there.
As we sat in the store eating our enormous hamburgers, he ordered new shoes from Amazon for delivery to the hostel. He would get new shoes, a couple days’ rest, and get back on trail with me after I arrived. Before I left we had both conquered the “Brushy Mountain Burgers” and fries, which was no small feat, even for hungry hikers.
So I said goodbye to Ryan and got going again around 4:30pm. I continued several more miles to a tent site along Laurel Creek, the next water source. It was a beautiful rushing creek and I was the only one camping there that night. The night was supposed to be clear night with temperatures in the mid 50’s—a great night. And it it didn’t take long to fall asleep after a long day, and under the spell of the rushing creek.
And here are some of the other interesting things we passed on our hike today.
As seen on a mountain top, no water nearby 
NOBOs celebrate 600 miles… 
