Date: 2012-10-29
From: Deer Lick Shelters

To: Pen Mar Park
Miles today: 4.9

(In which I hide in a Days Inn while hurricane Sandy wreaks havoc on the northeast)-Currently sitting in the hotel room surrounded by fall-out food-I'm trying to write this before I lose power. My phone is plugged in and both batteries are charged to full capacity but it may be days before the surrounding areas regain power. I have the TV on and as of 5 pm eastern time, power is going down faster than leaves from the trees.This morning I got up at 6:30 to a light drizzle, relatively warm temperatures and almost no wind. By the time I made it the 5 miles to Pen Mar Park (9am) the wind had picked up and things were getting chilly. Dennis picked me up from the park and we went straight to the Walmart in town. Along the way we talked about how he has been doing odd jobs recently since he stopped working at a local cement factory. He seems to work at half of the business in town on and off. He has also gotten a reputation for being helpful to those in need of a ride. He doesn't do it for free, and it's not exactly cheap, but if you need a ride he can get you around the area.At the Walmart we spent about 45 minutes picking up supplies for hiking and for the storm. I needed two days of resupply to get to Harpers Ferry and I bought two more days of food to eat in the hotel. As I was about to check out, a fella with an AT symbol on the left chest of his jacket asked me if I was currently on the trail. He said the food in the cart (fall-out worthy), the bags wrapped around my socks and the two-month beard gave me away. We talked about the looming storm and I told him my plans. He asked if I had a ride to the hotel and after I said I did I seized the opportunity to save a few bucks later on and asked if he'd be willing to give me a ride back to the trail tomorrow afternoon. I like Dennis, but I prefer a less expensive (or free) ride. He gave me both his and his wife's number and told me to call tomorrow. Once again, the trail and those who love it are everywhere. We talked for another 10 or 15 minutes and I found out that he had plans to thruhike in 2014 that were recently foiled by a new job. He sounded like I did when talking about the trail 3 or 4 years ago. I think it's a good bet that within a few years, the trail is gonna be an itch he can't help but scratch. We chatted about shoes and trail food briefly and then he wished me well after Dennis started to get a little antsy.After sending a few e-mails, calling some family and doing my laundry in the sink, I'm now sitting in the hotel room watching the east coast get blasted by this storm on TV. I saw the damage and flooding that hurricane Irene did to the roads, houses and business in the northeast and this looks much worse. My other concern is how bad the trail will be when I set off again tomorrow afternoon. I think about all the creeks and streams that I recently crossed via small footbridges and I imagine many of those footbridges will be washed away this week. I'm sure blowdowns will be at epic proportions too. Many parts of West Virginia that I'll walk through soon will get multiple feet of snow. The temperatures wont stay low, so the snow will melt, but it's one more variable in the next few days. I just heard on the TV the storm will cross the Mason-Dixon Line at 2 am tomorrow morning... yikes.If there's anything good that comes out of all of this, it's cookie cake. I've been dreaming about cookie cake ever since Matt mentioned it a few weeks ago, and I finally got one. An entire cookie cake, all to myself! Walmart has everything...Today's post is brought to you by ridiculous preparations for large amounts of wind and rain. Really public? Why are you going to buy water? Because it's going rain a lot? Ahh - right.