Date: 2018-05-03
From: Annapolis Rock tent sites

To: MD 77 Foxville Rd
Miles today: 6.4

Just after we closed our eyes last night I felt something crawling on me. I sat up to look and discovered a sizeable spider. Ewe! In the process of trying to remove him from the tent we lost sight of him and I immediately thought about it being a sleepless night! We did eventually relocate him to the exterior of the tent where he belonged, along with the tick Brian spotted on the inside of the mesh screen. Double ewe! Finally sleep would now come. I woke to the sounds of song birds and the flowing spring. A new day had begun and I stayed under my quilt soaking in every ounce of it's beauty as long as I could. I needed that and I deserved it. Eventually I exited the tent and began to get ready for the day brushing my teeth and packing up what I could. Brian enjoyed a few more minutes under the quilt and we reminisced about the previous evening until he too got up to visit the privy and fetch our bags from the bear pole so we could have breakfast. He was gone a while. I was just wondering what was taking so long when he strolled back into sight. There was a hillarious story about Brian in the privy with a broom a spider and a wasp I'll let you imagine that one! He won by the way.Today would be Brian's last day on trail with me and already in the 70's at 7am it was promising to be another tough one. We had roughly 6 1/2 miles to go from the shelter to our SUV. On Sunday afternoon we packed up everything we weren't going to carry with us and loaded it into the SUV. Brian drove it to a small gravel parking area at an AT trailhead off route 77 and our innkeeper gave him a ride back. The support for thru hikers is amazing! We broke down camp after breakfast, filtered water for the day at 1.5 liters in each bladder and an additional 1.5 liters in smart water bottles. Like soldiers on a mission we marched out of camp at 8:30 stoping only at the privy and to rest as needed, climbing over brutal rock piles that never seemed to end. Brian registered his 3 allowed complaints for the day and we pressed on There aren't many photo opportunities along this stretch but we could see thru the trees there was a gorgeous view on both sides of this section of trail. Our feet were hurting and we both had blisters but we wanted to get to the parking lot before the hottest part of the day. We drank all the water in the bladders and the extra liter bottle and were halfway through the extra 1/2 liter bottle when we approached the final descent to the road. More rock scrambling. Finally. I saw the road and nearly cried with relief until I realized I saw no parking lot, no SUV. The AT miles are white blaze miles. Most shelters, tent sites, water sources, parking areas are blue blaze trails and their mileage doesn't count toward the AT miles and aren't included in my daily log. So when my Guthooks app tells me I'm at the parking lot I still have to follow the blue blaze trail to the car. On most days .02 feels like that but today it felt like 2.0. I was so exhausted when we finally arrived Brian grabbed my pack off me and I dropped in front of the SUV to pee, my face was so red and I was over heated. Brian thought quickly and had a bottle of Poland spring water in the truck, which had been sitting there for days in 90+ heat. He immediately grabbed it and poured it over my neck while I was still squatting. It might have been warm water but it was cool to me and it helped greatly. My now wet shirt was cool I was able to sit in the SUV with the fan on and begin to cool down. We sat there for a few minutes resting and cooling. We made our way to town and got a hotel room in Hagerstown after lunch at Dixie's in Smithville where my body was still working on regulating it's temperature. Later after some rest we would trade in my Keene mids for some trail runners!