It was an ordinary morning out on the trail. I woke up around 8am, ate about 1200 cold calories, packed up my gear, and got my feet on the trail at 9am. The plan was to hike 9.5 miles and hitch into town, but plans were happily deviated.
It was 6 miles to the first shelter where we took a quick break, and immediately after some serious rocks began. In those last miles before the road I had my first potentially dangerous fall, and actually got quite lucky. While taking a steep falling step from one rock ledge down to another, I lost my footing and had my knee aiming for a 3.5 foot drop directly onto a pointed rock. Thankfully at the last moment I stabbed my trekking pole into the ground and managed to vault my momentum into a little gap; narrowly escaping a hike-ending injury, and incredibly, avoiding even a scrape or abrasion. I was laughing at my own luck when Mr. Fantastic quickly turned to see if I was alright, but as I hiked on I became a little shaken at how close a call it had been. It's easy to forget how human you still are after doing this for so long. Thankfully there were no other near-catastrophic falls for the rest of the day.
When we came to the road that we planned to hitch from we found ourselves at a local park. The road was unfortunately barren of traffic, so we decided to eat lunch there, under the blessings of a soda machine and power outlets.
While gorging, we started to realize how annoying it was going to be to hitch into town 2.5 miles further on (the next busy road) when we were already full and power charged. Consulting the guide we learned a few key pieces of knowledge. Tomorrow, after 10 miles, we will hit a park that is having a week long hiker feed (thank you section hikers for this piece of intel). They also have showers, and even a swimming pool. Even better, the park is located on a road that is only a .7 mile hike to a supermarket. Since we both had enough extra food to last us through a dinner and breakfast, we could greatly ease our burden by taking this advantage. So what does any good hiker do when they learn they have extra time in the day? If you said take a nap on a picnic bench, you are correct!
With 8.5 miles to go, we relaxed until about 4pm, filled up our water, and started out. A third of a mile brought us to the Mason Dixon, and finally into the North and Pennsylvania. No more South! We each snapped a quick pic, and then threw in some earbuds to listen to podcasts and hike at different paces. The gnats were really bad today, and the best thing to do is hide behind sunglasses so they don't dive into your eyes, and put in headphones so you don't have to hear their incessant buzzing. I tried soaking myself in bug spray early in the morning, but since it did nothing at all I threw it out at the next trash can. Why carry extra weight and coat yourself in poison if the bugs don't even care?
For the rest of the hike I listened to The Nerdist, with Levar Burton of Reading Rainbow fame (hilarious!), and Doug Loves Movies. Both of these are constant recommendations of Monica, and I was happy to finally have a chance to listen to the hour-plus long audio podcasts. It also gave me a fun new movie game to play on the trail.
These two podcasts brought me all the way to my shelter by 7pm, where I found a wonderfully novel setup. There are two smallish shelters, separated by a covered picnic table. One shelter says "Snorers" while the other says "Non-Snorers". Of course the non-snorer shelter already had two older gentlemen in it, and if I've learned anything out here, it's that all old men snore. So I jumped into the empty snorers shelter, because I think those old bastards are either lying, or live in blissful ignorance. Only time will tell.
While today had a big scare, it felt great to enter the North. Tomorrow has the makings of an awesome day at the pool, and we're only getting closer to the wedding. I can't wait to see family, and Mr. F can't wait to see Keith. Big things are coming, and at least so far big rocks and cumbersome falls can't stop them. Each step only brings us closer.
