Date: 2018-06-18
From: DickÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Dome Shelter

To: Spout Run Ravine
Miles today: 16.6

It was another sticky humid day. I thought that I¢d had a good night sleep, but was still tired and foggy as I hiked. I drank plenty of water, always adding electrolytes hoping that would perk me up. It didn¢t.In the morning the trail was fairly gentle with long flat stretches, but we knew that was coming to an end very soon.I meandered down the trail in a dreamy state headed for the next shelter to meet up with Cole for lunch. My bladder was full, but I had it in my head that I wanted to use the privy, so I held it. I just wanted to sit, not squat low behind a tree with my feet spread eagle to avoid backsplash on my boots. I just wanted to be normal and sit.It was sunny although the trees shaded me. A lovely sweet scent filled my nostrils but I couldn¢t see any blooms that would have given off such a delightful fragrance. The birds were chirping their myriad of courses and I walked.Down the trail in front of me a wild turkey stepped out from the brush and made her way down the path ahead. I smiled. A moment later, two baby turkeys popped out behind her. Delighted, I smiled some more. Cautious is what I should have been, but with my head in a fog and my thoughts in a cloud I continued on behind them.Then, mom disappeared back into the brush to the left. Her babies darted into brush to the right, and dopey hiker girl just continued to walk ahead right up the path between then.Suddenly from the brush momma came charging, all puffed up with her wings spread wide and squaking as loud as she could. In that instant my eyes bulged, I gasped audibly, jumped backwards two feet and was as wide awake as I had ever been in my life. Inexplicably I somehow kept myself from wetting my pants. I thought she was going to lunge at me, but instead she took off into the brush on the other side of the trail in pursuit of her offspring, continuing her loud tirade as she went. I moved along at a brisk pace until I had put some distance between us, and then I found a tree to hide behind and did my business. No backsplash. After lunch we began a section of trail called The Rollercoaster. This is a 13.5 mile section of steep, rocky ups and downs. There were no views to reward us for our efforts. Just pointless ups and downs, or PUDS, as they are called. The going was very slow. At almost every low point there was water. Cole was not drinking enough though. He had sacrificed one of his smart water bottles to use for collecting dirty water. When he thread it into the coupling on the sawyer filter, the threads were ascu. In an attempt to remove it, he mangled the neck of the bottle. He was able to uncrumple it slightly, but collecting and filtering water was very slow. Well, guess what I found sitting by the trail. A Smartwater bottle. This helped him with the filtering.We thought that we might try to reach Bears Den Hostel. Ice cream and soda were motivating, but not motivating enough. When we reached a campsite in a ravine by a wide swift running stream, we decided that the day was done. The air by the stream was much cooler and made it very comfortable for sleeping.