Today was a short day down to the gap before Pearisburg. When I arrived I met MP there and she was doing trail magic! It was such a nice surprise. I was so happy to see her and I spent the day hanging out with her waiting for Sarah and Aidan to catch up. I didn't mind the endless snacks that she gave me. Once Sarah and Aidan arrived, MP brought us into town where we sat and ate pizza and picked up some mail drops. MP brought us back to the woods so we could try to catch Dirty Peanut, Samwise, Blue Kazoo, Medkit, and the rest of the group.

We hiked on till after dark. I started to feel really sick over and over again. I consistently had sharp pains in my stomach and had to unclip my hip belt and lean forward while hiking to make it bearable. Sarah waited back with me too which was helpful. Eventually we arrived to camp around 10. It was such a nice reunion. We laughed and hugged and were so excited to be together again. I even saw Rebel Yell again who I hadn't seen since Georgia or North Carolina. He was there with Dixie.

It was raining pretty hard so Sarah and I cooked our meal inside my tent before coming out to hang around a weak fire. It's been raining nonstop all day and we're all so tired of it. This is made worse by the fact that my rain fly for my pack broke today. Thankfully I have a poncho to use until I can get a new rain fly. I'm praying for hotter and dryer days ahead.

This morning we woke and made breakfast under someone's hammock tarp to stay dry. It was still raining. Big surprise. We've kind of been two separate bubbles for a few weeks now so we hiked separately from the rest of the group. I think our pace is much slower than theirs which stresses me out a bit. I didn't want to lose them again. We took a break in a beautiful meadow for lunch and ate cheese, pepperoni, and crackers. We had some great laughs and I felt thankful to have such great friends with me.

A few hours after lunch I was having serious stomach pain again. I was extremely frustrated because I could barely hike. I finally had enough and decided I needed to go to urgent care or the hospital. There was a hostel a few miles into the day where you could take a pulley system across a river from the trail. We made it over but realized that we had no cell service and we were in an extremely rural area despite seeming close to Pearisburg. The owner of the hostel told us he had no shuttles and that it would be a 4 hour walk into town. Sarah, Aidan, Ford, and myself walked down the road hoping by some miracle we could get a hitch. A husband and wife were sitting outside in their yard and asked us where we were going. I told them I needed to get to the hospital and they reiterated that it was going to take us hours and instead offered to drive us. The trail provides yet again.

We were driven to the hospital in Pearisburg. I had to sit and wait for about 4 hours and Sarah took care of me while I was there. I really appreciated the company. I ended up being diagnosed with a peptic ulcer and was given some medication to help. The doctor recommended I take a few days off to heal up before continuing. There was a hostel right next to the hospital so we camped there for the night. I feel sad that I'm yet again apart from our group but I'm glad they found a diagnosis and hopefully a fix for it.

Ford and I had a talk about how attached I feel to Sarah again. I also called Cameron and chatted with him and for the first time in a long time I had some clarity on the situation. It's driving me nuts that I feel this way. It seems like it's a tendency I've always had with girls and relationships. It's something that I actually listed in my pre-hike goals as that I wanted to overcome on this hike. I talked with Aidan and Sarah about it and told them that for the first time I wanted to quit the trail because of the emotional roller coaster I felt I was on. I know I don't actually want to quit. I'm glad we talked it over. It will all be okay.

The past few days have been quite challenging. I had a really rough zero in Pearisburg and was in pain all day. I realized I needed more time to heal we decided to have Aidan's parents come and pick us up and take us back to their place in Harrisonburg, VA. We ended up taking a total of four zeroes and tomorrow we'll hit the trail southbound from Shenandoah National Park and hike toward to where we left off.