I walked to Walmart and Wendy's from Holy Family Hostel last night. Before I left I cleaned up as best I could and tried not to look like a hiker. Forest had his proper vest on as well. I'm happy to report that we had no problems. I filled up on fast food, had a cold Coke in a small glass bottle and ate a lot of fruit. So today was better. Thanks for the encouragement.
I tried to stay up late last night to make it easier to switch to night shift hiking, and then tried to nap this afternoon. Unfortunately, just as we stretched out in our hammocks today, someone on the neighboring property decided to mow the grass right along the property line. Murphy's Law. I just had to laugh.
This evening, we headed to Angels Rest Hiker Haven to pick up our resupply package and my glasses (what a relief!). We were faced with a 70-mile stretch ahead of us to our next resupply stop and water sources that are farther apart (as much as 10 miles), so I decided to slackpack. We left our main packs at Angels Rest and caught the shuttle. It dropped us off at Peter's Mountain Trailhead (VA 635; mile marker 656.1) at about 7:45 p.m. We will hike about 20 miles back to Angels Rest through the night with minimal provisions (mainly food and water). After we complete this portion, we will only have 50 miles to go, and will have 2 days less weight in our packs.
A huge part of PTSD is a high degree of social anxiety. It would be so much easier to go into stores and restaurants and arrange hostel and hotel stays and shuttles if my wife were here. She's good at interaction with people and keeps my feet on the ground. However, a large part of the reason for this hike is for me to get used to handling much of that myself. It won't be easy, but after I do it another hundred times or so, hopefully I'll get better at it. I'm not sure I'll ever like it, though.
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