On Thursday May 17 I hiked what I thought would be an 'easy’ 18.8 miles to Pearisburg. The day before I had hiked 33 miles so anything under 20 sounded great! But when I woke up with swollen feet it turned into one of the most difficult days so far on the trail.
When I saw Joe waiting for me in the parking lot at VA 100 I was so grateful in that moment and the relief was almost indescribable. Doug, his ridgeback who I had met several times at races, was not interested in being my friend at first - I probably didn't smell like any human he recognized. But it didn't take long for us to become friends again. When I took my boots off I was expecting my heels to be bleeding. Luckily there were no open wounds, just very tender skin.
Joe and Kim grew up in Narrows, VA and moved back a few years ago. I met them a few years ago while timing at triathlon races - they were the excellent photographers and we would chat and catch up while working at the finish lines together. They invited me in for a hot shower, laundry, pizza dinner, and evening entertainment (grandchildren!). Kim's brother Allen built a cabin up the hill from the family farmhouse and I was able to stay there for the night. I don't know if it was the comfy bed or the Benadryl (for the rash that had developed all over my body), but I slept great! The cabin was so comfortable I considered moving in for awhile..Allen made eggs, bacon, and warm blueberry muffins for breakfast, I ate until I was stuffed. I felt like a new person that morning and decided a zero day wasn't necessary, even though it was very appealing! Joe and Kim took me to Walmart to resupply and then back to VA 100 where I got off the trail the day before. 
It was hard to leave, but the rain had stopped, at least momentarily, and I started hiking again around 10:15 Friday (5/18). I wasn't in a rush so I took it slow, making sure my heels weren't going to start causing me trouble again. I had already decided I was only going to hike up to the first shelter north of Pearisburg that day, 6.8 miles. The rain slowly rolled in again, but I was able to stay dry. When it started to rain harder I picked up the pace, I wanted to keep my feet from getting soaked again. The trail goes up on a ridgeline - to the right was Virginia and to the left was West Virginia. 
When I got to Rice Field Shelter (AT mile 643.2) at around 1:30 there were some slack packers there eating lunch. Groot, a thru hiker from WV, came in to the shelter around 3PM, and an hour later 6 section hikers came in and we all squeezed in the shelter to stay dry. It was pouring now so we spent the afternoon talking about the trail and telling stories about the hike. One of the section hikers told a story about a previous hike - she was feeling sluggish and tired and her pack felt heavy. After a break she was repacking her pack when she found a 6 lb dumbbell in the bottom, she had put them in her pack to train for her hike and had forgotten to take it out. She donated it to a hiker box, I'm going up bet it's still there..
This was the most amount of time I had spent in a shelter since Deep Gap Shelter back before Hiawassee, GA. It was nice to stay dry out of the rain. It rained the rest of the day and on and off through the night. At 5:30am on Saturday (5/19) it was still raining but I decided to pack up and get ready to hike so when it stopped I could take off. My plan was to make it a little over 25 miles today, hoping to position myself to make it to McAfee Knob first thing Tuesday morning and to Buchanan on Wednesday afternoon.
At 6:30AM I left the shelter with Groot. The air was heavy with moisture but the rain had stopped. The miles were easy - really easy, basically a walk in the woods. We didn't see many other thru hikers - as I expected the trail had thinned out since lots of hikers would be returning or shutting forward to Damascus for Trail Days. Trail Days is a weekend hiker festival that brings hikers, hiking enthusiasts, gear vendors and is basically a big party with music and a hiker parade. Since there aren't many lodging choices in the small town of Damascus they set up 'Tent City’ which is basically a field full of tents. I wasn't interested in going but many hikers were and the trail was noticeably emptier.
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