Day 15 Charlie’s Bunion

Writing from my tent with only 15 miles left in the Smokies. 


It was nice being warm and dry inside last night. I slept well. 


We got up around 6 and walked to breakfast at 8. The food was good but nothing beats the Everett St Diner in Bryson City. We caught our shuttle around 9 and were hiking by 9:45. We planned to do the 15.5 miles from Newfound Gap to Tri-Corner shelter. We had awesome weather and excellent views. 



Four miles into the hike we stopped at Charlie’s Bunion, a famous rock outcropping overlooking the middle of the Smokies.



After Charlie’s Bunion, my ankle really started bothering me. The cramping continued for a few hours and slowed us all down as I went slowly and stopped regularly to rest and stretch. After about 5 miles of pain and pushing through, I borrowed some electrolytes from Spencer and took an ibuprofen. It’s strange because I’ve tried this combination multiple times on different days with varying effect. However today it did the trick. I was able to easily hike the last 6 miles with minimal pain. I was feeling so good that I wanted to keep pushing another 7.5 miles to the next shelter. It was 5PM. Luckily Tyler and Spencer showed up and talked some sense into me and we decided to camp here. 


I’m relieved that my ankle stopped hurting. I’ll take more electrolytes and ibuprofen in the morning then we will hike 15 miles out of the Smokies and take a zero in Newport. Hopefully the rest brings a stop to the ankle issues. Plus the weather is supposed to be awful on Saturday so it will be a perfect day for a zero. It will rain on us tomorrow as we exit the Smokies, but we have warm showers to look forward to in town.


Goodnight,

Walker 

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