Date: 2017-07-13
From: Wildcat Shelter

To: Fingerboard Shelter
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: scattered clouds

This entry brought you you by Straw (GA-ME '16), who recommended I get Cuban fiber rain gear; Al (GA-ME '17), who recommended the Z-Pack rain skirt, and Bret and Jackie (6 miles of NJ '17!), who brought the rain skirt to me on trail! Boy did it come in handy!* * *Hearing the hard-core 20-milers around me discussing how insanely hard that 14.3 miles was is comforting. It wasn't just me. (I say that a lot?)It's so hard to tell from the altitude maps how hard a day is going to be. It doesn't tell you if the inclines are smooth mountainside or stupid hard rock bouldering.Hint: today was the latter.I feel like my body is getting more beat up this year than previous years. Is it the rocks? Or does it just seem that way because I remember the good parts more than the bad?The skin on my thighs looks like I have chicken pox. Heat rash? Pimples?Last night was so hot and muggy I could barely sleep. I tied my long-sleeved shirt around my Thermarest as a "sheet" because my skin kept sticking to it.In the middle of the night, there was a loud crash and a yell. I was on the verge of getting out to investigate when someone called out, "he's alright!" In the morning I learned a tree had fallen down within feet of this guy's tent. We encountered an adorable school group today. The adult with them asked for our trail names. When I said mine, he looked confused."A T . . . AT. . . walker?" he repeated."STAR WARS!!!" a group of boys screamed. Then I did my AT-AT walk with the poles, and the kids lost it. They wanted high fives, kept telling me how cool my name was. I'm apparently a hit with the elementary school set. :-)It had been super humid all day and we were all going through water fast with few water sources available (and what was there was tea-colored). I was so thankful to trail angels The Hikeman and Susan, who left gallon jugs of water for us at road crossings.The heat just takes it out of me . . . And climbing over rocks . . .and relentless mosquitoes. On the up side, tons of blueberries! When I was low on water and energy, I thought a lot about how much water you need to digest blueberries vs the water you get from them. I must ask Sean. I ate a LOT of blueberries today. I'd just lean over, without hardly slowing down, and pull them off two at a time. (I later learned rain-rinsed cool blueberries are a treat!)I leapfrogged a lot with the folks at the shelter last night and joined them for trail magic (a lot of magic this year!). It was me, two other women, and about 15 shirtless guys. The trail magic was led by Blaze / Mick's family, and was to bring awareness for Alzheimer's disease (Steps For Dad).I left trail magic early, pretty sure it was going to rain. It had been so humid all day. And sure enough, it poured. Thunder started right before I got to a rock formation called the lemon squeezer (again with the names . . .), so I took shelter under the rocks to check for lightning and make a plan.After 10 minutes or so, two hikers came up - Good Times and Snowbird. They were going to power through, and I thought, safety in numbers, and joined them. Good Times kept looking back to check on me as we climbed, which I thought was nice. Hikers out here take care of each other.Oh man, tomorrow is 15.5. If it's anything like today, it's going to be rough. And I'll have wet shoes. Eyes on the prize: shower and laundry tomorrow night!