From Kristen in Damascus

So. Since Hot Springs. Yes.
Jacob dropped me off at Tanyard Gap, which is as far as I'd hiked with a half pack to rehab my injuries, or to test them rather. I put in half a day then under fair skies and watched the storms play from the safety of Spring Mountain shelter. Started doing 10-12 mile days from there to the tune of "Best Trip Ever!!" This thru-hiking business gets a little better every day. In those next 2 glorious days I was gifted wooden hiking sticks which I carried 30 miles to share (and stash) with a friend, looking like a Scottish Highlander in such terrain. April 12 it rained warmly in the morning over romantic pasturelands and up along green valley of wildflowers, until the ridgewhere it turned into an out-and-out gray squall. First to the shelter, I manned up for a 3/10's trek to water and hunkered down in the corner to get warm and dry. In the end we housed 11 people and a stray dog in a 6 man shelter. Good times. And the morning broke clear into the most epic birthday ever. Nothing hurt and I slept in the sun of Sam's Gap for 5 or 6 hours, collecting all sorts of trail magic until Janine arrived from PA. With our late afternoon start I knew we'd never make the shelter and picked out a last minute bivy before we took to the trail. But the landmark of blue and yellow blazes were neither readily apparent and before I knew it I was on a 360 view from a high bald at sunset. In the perpetual mix of planning things and winging it, Janine and I took dinner in the saddle and trekked one last mile to the shelter after sundown and by the light of a half moon.
The next 3 days I had a good friend along, for spectacular views, encountering an array of characters, sun, rain, wind, spring flowers, shelters, tents and hostels, resupplies, plans and improvisations, ups and downs, the joys and pains of hiking. It was sad to say goodbye early as blisters kept her from continuing and we found her a shuttle back to her car. I hadn't been on that end of the equation before. In short Bean (Janine) had a condensed version of my own trip, and I forged north over Roan Mountain - the last 6000+ footer til New Hampshire- on April 17th, with all manner of snow and ice underfoot. Crossing more high balds thereafter the night was spent in a converted barn shelter with many now familiar faces. I was pulling 16's and 18's well at this point, on my way to the lovely Kincora Hiking Hostel, ready for a long awaited 1/2 day off. But that plan went out the window when I called the Damascus clinic in the morning about what we would call and ingrown nail, and I suddenly had an appointment to make in 52 hours... 50 trail miles north of where I stood. You're kidding me. Well, I had alot more food packed than I needed for such a short period of time, but no time to spare so I shouldered my pack and hit the road, and 47 hours later I was in town - for claiming a bunk and a shower even- before I hit the clinic. 2 hours after that I'd been punched with penicillin and a ten-day prescription of antibiotics for what isnt really an ingrown nail. It's a bacterial infection in the soft tissue adjacent from a break in the skin and hiker dirt. I actually think I had this before in Wyoming once and it went away myself, but as its 250 trail miles or so til the next medical facility I played it safe this time. And Now... I'm taking a Zero, because I want to, not because I have too. It's great. (Ok- the doctor did say I have to, but that was after I already planned to). So, I'm going out to sleep and stretch and write my own thing in the sunshine. Tomorrow I take on the long, long state of Virginia. Bring it on.