Date: 2018-05-16
From: Boiling Springs

To: Darlington shelter
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Wed. Day 93 5/16 Easy Day With the four days of projected rain, I was able to relax and sleep in a little. I got up at 4, stretched, made five eggs, yogurt, orange juice. Chris and Mike had given me the car so I could just drive over to the ATC Center and leave it there for them. When I was at the HTC Center looking for the the blazes a voice called out "hey Lotus." It was Georgia Peach. He hiked in to the center earlier and was sitting in one of the outside chairs inside his sleeping bag enjoying a Coke and a bag of chips. I didn't recognize him at first but he reminded me that we spent the night together in a shelter. He told me his name 'Georgia Peach." It's always reassuring to meet somebody again that you already know on the trail. It's always a start after a zero-day to get back into the trail mentality. It was lightly raining. I just went with my trail t-shirt. Georgia Peach showed me the first Blaze. I had to hike along the road which is never fun. 5:40 on the trail again. For some reason as I started today I was a little emotional. Sometimes I don't understand it. I just roll with it until it passes. Today was a very easy day. It was lightly raining for the first three hours. I was walking on fairly smooth, muddy trails through fields. There were times I was walking through high grass or some kind of Farm grasses. They were laying over the trail to some degree. So as you walked by the grasses dumped huge amounts of water on you from your knees on down. My waterproof Merrell boots aren't waterproof at all. Even before I got into the high grass already my socks were wet. So now everything was wet, my pants were soaked. It was constantly like getting sprayed with a garden hose every step. After 3 hours it is cooled off. I could feel rain coming stronger. It started to rain hard and cold. I felt it coming and started to put on my rain jacket. It's always a embracing moment because your back is hot from your backpack and you're bending over and the cold, fat raindrops are splatting on your back. It's startling cold giving me a chill. It rained pretty hard right off the bat. The trail turned into a culvert. So now I'm walking through the grass in 2 in of water and everything is wet very, very wet. I had clean, dry socks for about 30 minutes today. The trail was gradual up and gradual down. A very, very easy day. About a mile from the shelter there was a sign that said sporadic spring at shelter, get water here. With all this rain and yesterday it rained incredibly. There were parts herwabouts that had hail the size of Ibex ping-pong balls. I decided to take a chance with so much rain that the sporadic spring would have water. When I got to the shelter there was one guy sleeping, Cody Coyote. He has been hikeing the trail on and off for the last 5 years. He is kind of a trail bum living on the fringe. No Shoes and Research had mentioned him. So I went and got water which was a bit of a small hike. The spring was being very sporadic. I had to excavate a little bit of the creek bed just be able to get my water collection bag low enough to get any water. I don't know when it runs but if all this rain doesn't make it run better than this they they shouldn't even bother calling it a spring. So I did 15 miles. I got in at 11:30. The easiest 15 I have every done. I met a girl named Ambassador, from London on my hike today. She was doing a flip flop out of Harpers Ferry. She was brand new and didn't have too much technique down. She was carrying 4 liters of liquids. She didn't have the best handle on her trekking poles technique. She was delightful. I stopped to talk about those topics. She showed up at the shelter about 45 minutes after me. She rested a bit and then wanted to push on to the next shelter which is only 7 miles away. I probably should have done the same cuz it was so easy today. When I was talking to my son, Luke, and my sister, Susan, they both stressed if I keep my miles under 20 and avoid high-heat, hike gentle I'll finish no problem. Sometimes I just want to get things done, acomplished, finish the project. So I just pulled up and took it easy and settled into the shelter. I didn't need to hike 22 miles first day after a zero. A Trail Angel came in with a six pack of beer, bananas, and apples. He is from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. We had a nice time chatting. He has a built a log cabin home just south of Tionesta, Pennsylvania. He was very pleasant. His wife had thru hiked in 2016. So I'm resting for the rest of the day. I'll get up and go tomorrow for an 18. 0. I got tired in the middle writing this so I took a nap for an hour. I woke up to very heavy rain on the shelter roof. It's not so bad hikeing on a gentler pace. :-).Around 5, Hobbit and Echo came in. I was delighted to see them. Hobbit has a lot of quiet knowledge, that you only get by being near him. He really doesn't talk about it. Echo was her cheerful self. A Canadian couple came in and hike on. Ibex came in. I had met her at another shelter. The shelter I spent the night with Chimney No Excuses, Candyman and Good Push. We had a very pleasant social evening. This was echo's last night. She was hiking into Duncannon and flying back to Hawaii. Ibex showed me her hamock. She had big problems with her feet. She carries extra dty socks. She put a dry pair on every day. She also used the lot of Lueco tape.