CT 7.5.15 Day 3

Days on the trail: 3
Miles today: 13.2
Miles from Denver: 43.1
Approximate elevation gain: 1975 feet

Now that it has gotten so bad, I can't usually smell myself. I mean, I know I must smell pretty bad, but how bad remains unknown. Sometimes I get a good whiff of David and it hurts. On day one he said he could smell himself and then said, "Dang son, put your arms down."

Home for the night.

Last night I packed up our food in a stuff sack and hung it on a tree. Not a real "bear bag" method, but it got the food away from our tent. When we woke up and started hiking, we noticed bear claw markings on some aspen trees near our camp site. Looks like we will be hanging a real bear bag from now on. Ugh, nature is so scary!

Pretty aspen grove.

Bear Claws. Now I'm officially freaked out.

 The views today were nothing extraordinary compared to some of what we have seen so far but it was overall a nice easy day of hiking. We hiked a little more than nine hours and the feet continue to hurt and limit us both on how many miles we can do in a day. We walked pretty slow after the first couple of miles. I told David that I have to remember to try and enjoy this despite how much it hurts (twss).

The last couple of times we filled up on water the filter (Sawyer- love it!) was going very slowly. We tried back flushing it before but realized the syringe had a crack in it, allowing us to flush only 30cc's at a time. After filtering all of my 3 liters, with the dirty water bag still attached, we back flushed as well as we could into the bag to see what was plugging it up. Sure enough, a dead fly came out. I was going to literally be drinking bug juice that day. Gross. (It ended up tasting pretty good, actually.)

Towards the end of Section 3, we were hopeful for a bathroom and perhaps a picnic table to stop and sit at. At the mention of picnic table, David referred to it as a "Bonafide place to sit". It's absolutely amazing how quickly our standards have been lowered.

A World of Hurt

Removing the green plastic part of my insoles to (hopefully) help my feet from hurting so much. Apparently, I bought the wrong ones.

I had been training in the same pair of boots for the last three months with the same SuperFeet insoles with no problems until the first day of this adventure. Our first 6 miles was mostly flat and I blame that section for giving me two sizable blisters. David took a look at my insoles and determined I had bought the wrong ones because the arch was too aggressive and in the wrong place. What to do? The next town was 50 miles away, so I took them out and separated the firm plastic piece from the soft part. That made a huge difference as far as blisters go. However, the limiting factor since then for miles done in one day has not been leg or muscle pain, but feet pain and in ways I had never before imagined. I try not to complain because it doesn't help anything. I am really happy to be doing the Colorado Trail and to see the amazing views, be outside and watch my body accomplish this hike. I'm not giving up because my feet hurt. Legs are fine, heart and lungs are acclimated, and nothing else hurts. Unless my feet feel fine, then I start feeling pain everywhere else. It seems that whatever is most pressing, most painful is the only thing that matters at the moment. If its raining and there is lightening less than a mile away, my feet no longer matter- survival does! If my feet feel good, my knee might hurt, or my hips from the pack weight.