Date: 2008-04-03
From: Laurel Fork (3300')

To: Kincora hostel
Miles today: 11.8

It rained a little bit last night and this morning as I was driven from my tent by an urgent #2. Also, last night I performed some first aid on a little cut on the underside of the outside of my left pinky toe. I cut a small piece of moleskin and placed the non adhesive side over the cut and held it in place by wrapping athletic tape around it and my foot. The cut is in the most inconvenient location because I can't really see it since I'm not flexible enough to look at that part of my foot. It was very bothersome towards the end of yesterday so I definitely needed to tend to it. There wasn't really rain until about 2 miles left so I didn't mind. I stopped at the first shelter for a brief snack and I ate my poptarts on the go in the morning to get out faster and hence more time at the hostel. I kept having to stop to check my feet and there was an invisible rock or twig in my boot that no matter how hard I tried to remove it never found its way out and then I had to stop again to put on my rain gear. I've been pretty spoiled with weather so far and when the rain started I got disappointed until I realized I had all the time in the world to hike two miles and a little rain wasn't so bad. It made the rhodendrons glisten and when I get down about the rain, the birds always make me feel better because they have no rain shells or pack covers and they just tough it out. Makes me feel like I shouldn't worry so much. When I got to the hostel the town shuttle was leaving in a half hour so I didn't have much time but I knew I just needed the food to get me to Damascus. We ate at Arby's (Dynamite, Shep, CJ, and I) and I ate two cheddar melts, jalapeno poppers, curly fries and two sodas. I got what I needed in the grocery store in addition to some snacks for the day and we headed back. In addition to the four of us that have been hiking together another hiker named lichentroph all played risk and munched on some ice cream, chips and queso, vanilla wafers with milk, and mountain dew. I came in second to Shep who won in one turn knocking everyone out. Very impressive and unprecidented as far as I know. I spent the rest of the time showering (it had been since Hot Springs), laundering, and organizing my things for an early start the next day. We ordered pizza and Dynamite and I split wings and chicken ranch pizza. I ordered a dessert calzone but was too stuffed to eat it. There were a bunch of other hikers there as well (Willie boy, Pied hiker, two section hikers, and some section/slackpacker hikers). It was a good group and a cozy hostel and I enjoyed hanging out. I saw the 2002 register when Bob and Quade came through which was cool because its the first time I've been able to check a register from that year. There were lots of pictures of people on Katahdin that were on the walls of the hostel. I suppose they all stayed at Kincora at some point. Kincora seemed to have a lot of history to it. I talked on the phone to Ben and my Dad who are skiing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming (Ben seems to be going to Michigan although nothing is definite. He didn't like Carnegie Mellon and has turned off Cornell as an option so it seems his order as an option 1. Michigan 2. GT). I also talked with my mom and told her about the house Richard found and she's excited for me. She also said she had been looking at trail journals and has read Dynamite and Shepherd's which would show her some of the places I've been. I tried to get to bed early tonight to wake up early but I'm waiting on laundry. Tomorrow and the next day are both 24 + miles into Damascus and then a zero at CJ's place. I'm excited to relax and am glad I'm taking some time off instead of pushing myself a little too hard. Also if I stay on Shepherd's heels for a little while I'm sure I'll be fine because he has a schedule that he's been sticking to which has him finished around the 4th of July.