Date: 2010-07-11
From: Yellow springs village

To: Lickdale
Miles today: 10.7

7/11Yellow springs village campsite to Lickdale10.7 miles plus 2.5 brutal gravel miles to town HotelYesterday evening as I lounged in camp, the sun came out from behind the clouds. It changed the campsite from pretty to spectacular. No breeze though. It just seems wrong that the outdoors can be stuffy, but it can. Also I forgot to mention that I had a groundhog encounter. He was barreling down the trail toward me. About twenty feet away I said "Hi there. How's your vision?". He stopped and looked to the north. So I'm guessing his vision is not very good, because I was in the west. After a minute I began walking toward him again, and THAT he got. He turned and hightailed it down the trail. Lowtailed it, more accurately. He was quite short and close to the ground. He stayed on the trail quite a distance, then dove into some bushes. The experience made me think that groundhogs must be easy pickins. I admit that I am not very threatening, but I am technically a predator, or at least a proud member of an often predatory race. I could have killed that thing with a wet towel.Today I got up at 5:30 and walked to Rausch Gap shelter before 9:30. I feel a little weary and am stopping every hour or so for a few minutes. The shelter is really nice. It's built into the side of a hill. There are stone retaining walls forming a nice patio with a troughed spring at one edge. It's a well thought out and pleasant shelter - one of my favorites so far. Too bad it's not my destination for today. Given where I stayed last night, my options were 16 miles to a shelter, or about 13 into town. Guess which one I chose?  If you guessed the one involving AC, restaurants, and a shower, you guessed right!  My feet would hurt either way, but with town I get to sleep a little better, I hope. My stupid head supplied me with bear and wolf dreams last night. Just what I wanted when camped alone my first night back in the woods. So here I am in Lickdale. As soon as my feet stop throbbing I'm going to wander over to the Wendy's. I hear the Baja salad is good. Just FYI the trail into town kind of sucks. Very hard on the feet, and confusing in places. I soo don't want to retrace my steps in the morning so I'm trying to find someone to shuttle me back. I'll walk it if I have to, of course, but I think it will reduce my overall mileage for the day. The pain it will cause my feet will make me need to stop early. I received some welcome trail magic today in the form of a mostly frozen Capri sun juice. It was delicious. I haven't had one in years. Certainly not one so cold it had ice crystals in it. It was just perfect. I think my month off has put me way behind the pack. I saw two guys walk by at 8:30 last night. And I saw some dayhikers today. No other thruhikers. Trail registers indicate there are people I know two days ahead of me. I may run into them depending on their days off. I hope so!  I wasn't expecting and don't want a totally empty trail. It would be nice to at least meet some section hikers. On the other hand I have all the privacy I could ever want for bodily functions. Maybe I'll make up some new ones just to pass the time.