I hate mosquitoes. My feet hurt. Title. I have 6 blisters between my two feet, and my attempts at prevention today did not help. Yes, this is entirely my fault (and what I get for doing 2.5 times more mileage than my previous record for a day’s hike). I may have gone out a little too hard for my first day truly on the trail. I had hoped before starting that Leukotape would be my catch-all solution, my fairy godmother for protecting my feet. I knew I would need to keep my feet healthy, but no, the tape did not help. I did do 25 miles on day one with the heaviest pack I will carry for the whole trail, so that felt very nice. Right now, I am worried about running damage control on my feet to keep them from getting infected via these blisters, as I wait for them to callus and harden into rock (hopefully). Frankly, I will admit that the shoes I picked may not have been the best choice. Hopefully they will get better for me as time passes. Feet aside, I do feel pretty good, despite hiking nearly a marathon today. I did wind up hiking with someone else for part of the day. I started at about 5 a.m. and met a kid named Early Bird at about 9 am. He is a 17-year-old French Canadian kid also hiking solo. Very impressive. He said he had hiked the whole Maine section with his parents before and seemed way more experienced than me. It was nice to hike with him, but I really enjoyed solo hiking more. Hiking alone let me choose my pace exactly as I wanted, and allowed me to take as many breaks for as long as I wanted. Tonight I am staying at the Rainbow Stream lean-to. Tomorrow’s goal is to hike either 18 or 25 miles to a shelter. I guess my choice will all come down to how my feet feel, and how time winds up passing as the day goes by. Only time will tell.
Additionally, I wound up doing two stream crossings that were very deep today. As in, there was swiftly flowing water that ran at my waist height. There were no issues, but I certainly realized that flowing water is no joke. I didn’t fall over, but I felt how easy it could be to lose footing and soak your gear, or even endanger your life. Needless to say, my adrenaline was pumping, and I will treat all water crossings with more respect moving forward.