Day 2: New Shoes

We woke up at 6am, had oatmeal for breakfast and set our clothes and shoes out to dry in the sun. Inspected my feet to find some nasty blisters and that my big toe nail has begun separating from the nail bed (very painful). Turns out my shoes don;t fit properly without orthotics (which lift my arch and shorten my feet, but are hard plastic and uncomfortable so i opted not to bring them) so my toes have been crushed too tightly inside. I usually wear an 8.5 and these were 9's so that is strange. Advice from experienced hikers was that i shouldnt hike until i had new shoes. Well, there is not much around here but a gas station 6 miles away....so....Ellen deHavilland to the rescue! She went to REI and bought size 9 and 9.5 in a different shoe (Keen, has lots of room for toesies) and brought them to me on the trail! I hiked 4 miles in my Crocs to meet up with her. Then we hiked about 6 more miles to a campsite...which was filled with Cub Scouts so we are sleeping (illegally? aka stealth camping) in a field. Our trail...friend Jonny Walker joined us for the end of the hike and we had dinner, star-gazed and listened to some music with him. We are moving slowly with Chad's knees hurting him on downhills, and I can't put pressure on my toe, but we have kept the 10mile/day pace. sSeepy sleepy, goodnight!