Date: 2006-06-13
From: Rausch Gap Shelter

To: 501 Shelter
Miles today: 17.4
Weather: 0

Today was full of really nice things. We, NEFFA and I, crossed I-81 for the last time - we will now be heading east as we go up the coast. The next nice thing was that we crossed 1174 mile point, which leaves less than 1000 to go. I can't believe about 1000 miles to go sounds good.We arrived at this shelter, which has a solar heated shower (the water is still too cold for me to take one). I did wash my sweaty shirt and socks.We found a note explaining the pizza place that delivers here is closed this week; that did not make us happy campers. So when the laundry was done, we decided to hitch a ride into town and buy our pizza at another pizza shop. We went out to the road to try and get a ride. We had a few cars pass us and then a trail angel, and former thru-hiker "Closer," pulled up. He not only gave us a ride into town, but waited for the pizza to be made, and gave us a ride back. Thanks Closer! When we returned, there was another trail angel here, "Ripper," with two 1/2 gallons of ice cream, a gallon of milk, and some cookies. There are only four of us here, so we had a lot of eating to do. Thanks Ripper! Actually, thank you to all the trail angels out there doing trail magic. I'll pay it forward once I'm off the trail.One down spot today was my feet were hurting as I hiked. I bought new insoles while Sue was here and they were in my boots. At lunch I put the old ones back in and that felt better initially. I'll have to see what they feel like after a full day of hiking tomorrow. If the hurt stops, the old ones stay.I'm rounding the lower corner of New York, and I'm getting closer to family. I've set up a schedule for the next two weeks, and I will try to hold to it. It would be great to see family and friends, although the visits will be short. I know it would be a boost for my morale to feel the love and support from everyone.Again I thank each and every one of you following my Trail Journals. For years I followed previous thru-hikers journals as they completed their dreams. Whether you are reading these journals to plan a future hike, or are just following this dreamer on his quest, I thank you for your interest.Additional Info: I saw another rattlesnake today. It was coiled up about three feet off the trail. Brian, a hiker without a trailname, poked it with his hiking stick, but the thing didn't move much and I don't know why. It did rattle it's rattle, but that was all it did. Well anyway that makes three I've seen now.Old GoatSue's Note: I found a message in the Guest Book from some nurses who are following Old Goat's progress. They asked if he's okay because there had not been any Trail Journal entries for a couple weeks. Our son and I enter Old Goat's logs in the Trail Journal. Old Goat has been fine - the gap was because I didn't realize our son's schedule had gotten pretty busy and I was waiting for him to enter them. Since Old Goat now sends them only when he can find a land line (pay phone or some other type of hard-wired phone), he sends them to us in bunches. If we miss entering one bunch when it comes in, we end up with a lot to enter when the next bunch gets to us. Chris and I talked about how to try to avoid such long stretches going forward.Thank you so much for sending that message - it's touching to know people who don't know Old Goat care how he's doing. He loves hearing the messages, whether he knows the author or not.