It feels like someone drove a six inch prison shiv into both of my quadriceps. Or, maybe it feels like yesterday the baby hikers got their asses kicked by some big bad rocks. The prison shiv sounds so much more spicy in writing. We woke up at eight this morning and didn’t even try to sit up for at least three hours. Actually, that might just be normal behavior for us, but this time it was because of pain, not just because we felt like laying around. Just standing up was (and is) a monumental event.

Yesterday, my legs on the last (and easiest) mile of what seemed like a right angle into the sky, pretty much gave out. I wiped out once on loose gravel but only scraped up my leg and felt foolish. I shouldn’t have been running while tired and weakened but, the the trail was steep and the sun was going down. We had to get the trusty Element five miles down Rocky Gap road. Five miles in forty minutes of navigating boulders, winding turns and brutal drops. It was hard enough during daylight hours. The only other injury of the day was also by me and was more funny than painful. I was placing my feet, bracing myself to make a big push to propel me over a large overhang. I was concentrating so hard, I flung myself up and headbutted a bulbous clump of sandstone. Clonk.

Also today we picked up a very light FedEx box filled with ultra light gear. Andy put on his marino wool long johns and we played in our double bivy sack like we we’re back in fourth grade and had an awesome refrigerator fort. Tomorrow I feel like we’ll be ready for distance but on something very, very flat.