Blogging about tough days is hard. Putting metaphorical pen to paper and laying out my thoughts on difficult days on the trail is daunting. There has been a small gap of days since we last posted. But that doesn’t mean something terrible happened. In fact, a lot of wonderful things have happened in the last two weeks. Simply motivating yourself to blog about Turkenna’s return home and days of mental health issues has proven to be more difficult than writing about the exciting and fun days. It seems that day 59 was a turning point from the previous days.
Leaving Daleville
Our stay in Daleville was a much needed break. A physical break, yes. But also mentally. It was a reboot. We woke up in our hotel room with clean clothes, Cody’s new shoes, and a very full bag of food. Rain was expected that day, but we were well rested and ready to hike 18 miles. We had breakfast at the hotel and waited a few hours, waiting for the rain to pass completely. We took our first steps down the trail around 11:00. We started late but it’s worth it if we can avoid getting rained on. At the beginning of our hike we came across a small sign that said “1/3 of the way to Katahdin.” It’s crazy to think that we’ve walked this far but we’re not even halfway there yet!
Lunch break
The shelter, just 5 miles down the trail, was a good stopping point for lunch and continuing to get out of the rain that started again. The shelter did not have a spring or natural water source like most shelters on AT possess. However, it did have a cistern. 
I had never seen this before, but rainwater that fell on the roof of the shelter was collected through the gutters into a cistern, which hikers could then filter for drinking water. What a cool concept! After a few minutes of light drizzle, the rain let up again and we continued down the trail.
Scary sprained ankle
Unfortunately, I took a misstep while walking and sprained my ankle on a root that gave way. Now I’m pretty prepared to twist my ankle on flat ground when I’m going about my daily life. It’s a miracle I haven’t severely sprained my ankle along the way to this point. This was the kind of turn where I was left lying on the ground, knee skinned, backpack moved to an awkward position, and struggling to sit up. With the Captain’s help, I finally sat down and tried to assess how bad the ankle was. It definitely had me on edge, it was the kind of pain that I couldn’t tell if it was just a temporary discomfort or something more serious. I told him I just needed to get away, which I did.
beautiful landscape
The stretch of trail was magnificent. It’s not one of the most popular or notable sections of the trail, but the recent rain made everything bloom and the colors were very vibrant. 
Even the vegetation seemed a deeper, richer shade of green. Our favorite was the hundreds of rhododendron flowers along miles of the trail. My ankle became less of a concern as I walked and took in the beauty of the trail. Even the lookouts at Taylor’s Mountain and Harvey’s Knob were impressive on a gray, overcast day.
Set up the store
With the late start and the breaks we took throughout the day trying to avoid the rain, our arrival at the shelter was shortly after hiker midnight. A handful of hikers were already lying in bed when we entered camp. We thought about staying at the shelter, but our concerns about the norovirus that had recently struck hikers on the trail kept us away. In fact, one of the shelter kids had just been quarantined in Daleville for suspected norovirus. Needless to say, we decided to pitch a tent in the shelter’s only tent site. It had a significant tilt, but it was the best we had.
Worse for wear
When we finally went to bed that night, we assessed our bodily ailments. I compared my ankles. The left side was significantly swollen, but it didn’t hurt enough to worry too much. I was hoping that tomorrow it would blend in with the rest of my bodily ailments and not hinder my walk too much. Cody was busy applying another coat of calamine lotion to the poison ivy that had wreaked havoc on his legs. The inner part of her thighs showed no signs of healing. They looked red, hot and painful.
I have to accept the suction
The rain continued all night as we slept in our tent outside the Bobblets Gap shelter. We stayed up in the tent for at least an hour before finally getting up and packing up camp. Packing up camp in the rain isn’t as bad as packing up camp in the rain, but it still sucks. I’m not a very morning person. Cody can attest to that. Trying to drink coffee while raindrops are dripping is not pleasant. But if there’s one piece of advice every hiker has heard, it’s: «embrace the suck.» This was one of those mornings. 
We just accept it. My ankle hurt. Cody’s poison ivy burned from the humidity. The forecast said it was going to rain all day. And so it was. But we accept the bullshit. We don’t complain about all the things…at least not out loud. We simply packed up and started walking, just as we had done every day since we took our first steps in Amicalola Falls on March 9th.
Escape the rain for lunch
We tried to find respite from the rain in a shelter during lunch. But we thought we couldn’t waste the day waiting for a break in the rain that didn’t come. However, we were able to see a nest in the shelter with baby birds in it. We appreciated the opportunity to observe nature in a moment of stillness.
A rainy day on the AT
We seem to walk with our heads down the rest of the cold, rainy day. The 30 kilometers we walked made it one of our longest days. Of course, it all culminated in a big climb at the end. The feeling of relief and accomplishment as we wearily walked into camp washed over us. 
We had dinner, changed into dry clothes, and went to bed very quickly that night. We barely had time to introduce ourselves to two hikers we’d never met before. In fact, they were both women, and we had recently talked about how we were walking in a bubble full of men and had barely seen any women. It was great to meet Rolodex and Mega Smile!
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