[at-l] Ready's Journal: June 29 Tuesday TD 24 PT2

[kahley7@ptd.net (kahley)]

The pain had been so great initially that I could neither stand
up right away, nor speak coherently for a few moments. This
only added to poor Spur's distress.
It was far more painful to witness his anguish than to endure
he sharp pain in my ankle. I managed to utter that I was OK.
It took quite some time and convincing before he relaxed.
Due to the strange angle at which I'd fallen, I had one leg
twisted under me and simply could not get up without assistance.
We both calmed down about the incident; however, we
never got to the point of being able to laugh about it.
  Instead, it merely added to our annoyance about the poor condition of the 
trail.
It had been a tough day, but we'd maintained a good pace.
The highlight for me came when Spur announced, rather
  formally, that I had just completed 300 miles!
Over the course of the day, we'd passed several others
who'd left the shelter before we had - the GAK Team,
Awol and two buddies, Walkie Talkie, and finally Hemlock
and Tabasco. Still, we seemed to not gain much ground.
We speculated that the distances offered in the guides for
  this section were in error.
We found a wonderful campsite near the creek at the Rauch's Gap shelter.
We pitched the tent and immediately took a a nap. What had been
intended to be a short nap tuned into nearly 3 hours! We awakened
and prepared supper, journaled, and hit the sack again - still feelng the 
need for rest.
Tomorrow should be a just-under-16-mile day to the fabled 501 Shelter.