Date: 2018-05-14
From: Toms Run Shelter

To: Boiling Springs
Miles today: 23.5

Mon Day 91 5/14 I was up at 4 and ready to be on the trail by 5. Echo got up and gave me a bar for breakfast. She was worried I didn't have enough food. I was running pretty light on food and I hadn't eaten that much the night before. The trail was a river from the night before. Hiking by headlamp in the dark it is very hard to tell how deep the water is on the trail. Sometimes you realize that the waters is way to deep. The trail is Rocky and wet. Soon after I left the Toms Run shelter I came to this big sign. It said this was the halfway point. It was raining. I started to walk past but said no I'm going to take a picture of this sign in the rain. It's equally 1090.5 miles to Katahdin, Maine and South to Springer Mountain, Georgia. This is the mathematical center, halfway point. So that started me thinking. When you're on a massive undertaking thinking is not recommended. So it's taking me 90 days, 90 tough challenging, hard days to get halfway. I don't even want to think about the next half. I really stayed very much in the moment so far. I may think of a 5-day plan but really I'm just doing one day at a time. I've done a series of one day hikes. I get up in the morning. I have a goal in mind. I make my goal. I filter my water, eat my dinner, socialize a little, and get to sleep. The next morning I get up and do it again. I often start at 5 a.m. in the morning. It's a simple life, a simple plan and I can wrap my head around that. Two think that I've hiked a thousand 90 miles is a little overwhelming. It's a whole lot of overwhelming to think I'm going to hike another thousand 90 miles. This is been a very challenging endeavor. I know my knee is bouncing back. I'm still on my feet but this is a challenging Adventure. So I try not to think of the bigger picture. I have a month to go before I take a trip to Alaska with my sister, Susan. I figure I'll be off the trail for 3 weeks. Then I'll have August, September and two weeks in October hopefully to finish. I try not to think about the bigger picture. It's too big for me.When Curtis was with me, I had planned to do this section to Boiling Springs in 5 days. Without him, I plan to do this section in 3 days. This was the third day and Boiling Springs was 23 and a half miles away. The day started underwater with a lot of rocks. The sharp 2 inch square rocks, the rocks that stick a half an inch out of the dirt that hurt your the ball of your foot when you walk on them and just a jumble of loose rocks a half inch to 3 inch big on the trail. Today I was in for a variety of trail surfaces. It started out the first four miles a very rough Rocky Trail surface. I didn't know whether my feet would handle 23 and 1/2 miles of this Sharp Jagged kind of Trail surface. Sometimes the balls of my feet get so sensitive just standing up is painful. They call it Hiker Hobble. There was plenty of water sources that I could hike to. So I was caring no food practically and no water. An hour into the hike I came across a Gatorade Trail Magic. So I ate my last bar my last Apple and drank the Gatorade. There were gradual up and down climbs which are the kind I like. There was a stretch that was long and straight through the forest that was perfect, no rocks, no roots just perfect. I saw that guide that there was a rocky scramble ahead. I had my mind in my a rocky scramble that I done before, which is maybe 30 ft wide of all rocks anywhere from 6 in to 3 ft big. You just scramble from one Rock to another. It's very easy to get lost on a rock scramble because there's no beaten path, along in these rocks it's a difficult run. When I got to this Rocky scramble, the Rock's were the size of cars. There were times I couldn't use my trekking poles and had to use my hands to climb up. Everything was wet and moss-covered slippery. There was one time I literally had to slide down the face of the rock 6ft to land on the next Rock. This was a very difficult section and the trail maintainers knew it. Some of the blazes were only 10 feet apart and there were literally painted arrows that pointed you the way around certain rocks. You could make a 270 degree turn as you worked your way through this Rocky Scramble. This really slowed me down. The rain had stopped and the cool morning had given way to hot sun. I was in the trees most of the way so it wasn't so bad. Then I came to a section I had heard about but didn't know when I would get there. I probably walked 2 miles through plowed fields of AT maintained lands. Now this was after 12 noon. The sun was hot and I was cooking as I walked. I can tell I am going to have to avoid these hot afternoons. I just don't have what it takes to hike in the heat. I'm just going to have to be smart about it. I get up earlier then my lingering around camp average of 5 a.m. just about cooked I finally got into the beautiful town of Boiling Springs. It is really really picturesque. I was meeting Rickless Morty's mother at the ATCenter in town. I was to call when I arrived. I got in around 3 and called. Mad Mike from two days ago was there as well. He was very impressed that I had hiked it in. He had gotten a ride and was getting off the trail. It was too much for him. He wasn't enjoying it. It was time to go home. Chris picked me up around 3:30. We went back to the house. I washed my clothes. I gave the the tick treatment of promethium . I ate until I was too full to eat anymore. I got so tired after eating that I just went to sleep for the night. Hiker midnight came and got me.