May 2 – 2nd hiking day – 7.9 AT miles + .5 miles

Oops 8th hiking day

Birch spring gap campsite to Russell field shelter

Ahh. Today was great! I felt like I was hiking a real day today even tho it was still short. I didnt want to stop but I knew I shouldn’t push it. Gradually increase. Tomorro ill have to hike at least 10 and maybe more depending on weather stuff cuz I need to make sure I don’t have to summit Clingmans dome (the highest point on the AT) in the rain. I think it’s going to be Sat or Sun. More likely Sun but if its supposed to be nasty that day, I will need to push myself

I made sure to never run out of anti inflammatories in my body, so there was not much pain today. We will see tomorro. I wish I could just get a stupid MRI done, so I wouldn’t have to make the decision of whether I should continue hiking. I can cover most of the pain with pills and hike thru the rest, but if I’m destroying my knees, I wish I could know. It would prolly be smart to go home and figure it out and fix it, but I reeeeally don’t want to stop

Tonight I’m in a shelter, and I’m glad cuz i won’t roll off every 2 seconds, but I gotta worry about the mice, and there is a sick lady next to me. She thinks its altitude sickness but we are only at 4367 feet. Hopefully it’s not a bug. That sickness that all the thruhikers are getting between Hot Springs and Erwin is supposedly contracted in the Smokies or a little after, so I’m sanitizing my hands obsessively. I would stay in a tent, but in the smokies you are required to stay in the shelter if there’s room, which is fine. Not having to set up my tent saves me a lot of time

Almost everyone has gotten to see a bear in the last 2 days, but I still have not. Maybe tomorro. I didnt have the guts last night to leave my tent open, but people this morning were saying there was lots of wildlife around last night.

I woke up late today cuz I finally was able to sleep well at like 5am so I didnt get up with my 7am alarm. Tomorro I plan on getting up early, in case I need to do extra miles. And so when I am hiking and get reception on the mountain somewhere, I can take a long break to research how I could maybe get an MRI in Gatlinburg.

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This morning: well 2 people at my shelter were throwing up all night and 2 people at the one 3 miles away. I hope I don’t get sick

My knee is pretty sore even with the anti inflammatories. It’s back to where I can’t really bend it at all which is difficult when climbing mountains. It’s supposed to rain every day after today. That is not gonna be pleasant up this high. It’s getting colder and colder as I get higher and Clingmans is still like 2000 ft higher than here. I might get a ride from there to Gatlinburg depending on my knee. At this point it is like 17 more miles to Clingmans or back to Fontana dam so I’m stuck if the knee gets bad but I’m alright for now