Day 11

Rocky Cove Knob-Winding Stair Gap - ~1.5 miles 

Woke up very early and rushed to catch the shuttle. Got there 5 min. early and sat with the various other hikers until it came. Everyone climbed into the big white van and former thru-hiker Solace gave us a guided tour into and through town, then dropped us off at the Sapphire Inn where we would be staying. We checked in and then went immediately to tend to mike's hands. A mile walk through town to get to the grocery store proved to be exciting since I guess a lot of people don't walk very much in these small towns, so there are few sidewalks, and crosswalks mean nothing. Anyway, we bought like 5 different types of medicines for mike, some snacks, and made our way back to the motel. At 4pm was the famous hiker shuttle around town driven by local hiker hero Ron Haven in his old school bus. Ron drove us around, our stop was the local outfitter where we got new insoles and underwear. Went back to the room, relaxed, and waited for mike to start feeling better.