Date: 2013-06-30
From: Foxville Road

To: Deer Lick Shelter
Miles today: 13.2

I woke up early and started packing up but then I decided to lay down for a few minutes and woke up an hour later. That made us have a late start and we weren't on the trail until shortly after 10:00. While our trail angel, Kyra, was dropping us off we we ran into Ahvoh and Ripper. Today was such a magical day I had difficulty selecting just one pic for this post, but in the end it was clear that it could only be our wonderful trail angel. See the photo section for lots of other good pics. There were more ups and downs today and some of the trail was rocky. Nonetheless, it turned out to be an amazing day!About 5 miles in to the hike we began to hear music. At first we thought it was someone playing their radio loudly. As we hiked along it became louder. Suddenly we emerged into the Pen Mar County Park that has music in the park every Sunday afternoon during the summer. Many people were dancing and I was tempted to join in when they played a polka. I just didn't have the heart to ask anyone to dance with a sweaty, stinky hiker. Several locals welcomed us and invited us to join in or talked to us about our hike. The park had a concession stand so Hat Trick enjoyed a blueberry snow cone (see pics) and I had a root beer float. How awesome is that to be able to walk off the trail to live music and a root beer float?!?As we were leaving I met Jack Myers who celebrated his 90th birthday on June 17th (see pics). Amazingly he celebrated by going for his first ever sky dive. I thought he would view it as a one and done scenario but no, he wants to go again but this time he wants to take his 64 year old son with him. Jack had a lot of stories to tell and I regretted not meeting him sooner. He had recently won the senior idols contest with his singing. I called over to some other hikers so they could hear about his amazing adventures as well. Soon after leaving the park we came to the Mason-Dixon Line so I am officially out of the south. That also means we crossed into Pennsylvania, my 7th state on this trail - whoo hoop!!!Another magical moment came when I met Wholebean and UV and their dog Lazy (see pics). While in the Shenandoahs they decided to get married. They are getting off the trail today to go home and tell their families. GOOD LUCK Whole Bean and UV!!!!!Just before Kyra arrived at our rendezvous point Ahvoh and Ripper walked out of the woods. It was amusing that we hadn't seen them since she dropped us off and now here they were again. Kyra arrived with Italian sausage, grilled peppers, buns, left over Chinese food, fresh fruit and more! She invited Ahvoh and Ripper to join us and they eagerly did so. A thunderstorm was rapidly approaching so Kyra drove us to a nearby town and we ate under the overhang of an empty building. When Kyra dropped us off at the trailhead it was clear that we were going to have to move quickly to void getting soaked. We almost ran the little more than 2 miles to the shelter with the thunder rumbling and booming overhead. Just after we got to the shelter the downpour began. There are actually two shelters here so Hat Trick and I have one to ourselves. The thunder is still rumbling . . .