Date: 2017-08-18
From: Carlisle

To: Sheet Iron Roof Road
Miles today: 16.7
Weather: scattered clouds

¢0¢ And I am not going to argue whether zero is a number or not. I know what it means today. It means I see Frodo in a few short hours.I hike out of my motel room and feel naked. My pack was left against a wall amid almost all my gear. I have shoes, socks, shorts, shirt, AWOL Guide pages, map, phone, baggie wallet, toilet paper baggie (Yes, with the empty baggie to ¢pack it out¢) and my room key. Why, I could cram it all into a quart Ziplock. It¢s not exactly (Princess alert) bare-assed Hike Naked Day, but as I walk the third of a mile back to the trail with 12-wheel semis buzzing past me, I feel unclothed.Frodo is meeting me in 4.9 miles. I am slackpacking today. In nineteen days since I last saw her, I hiked 18 full days, none less than 16 miles, over 340 miles total. I need to be kinder to this wondrous body that has carried me so far. I am going to change out my gear again. I am making backpacking decisions I thought I¢d never make. I am going to ship home my rain jacket. What, hike without a rain jacket? I am going to ship home my down puffy jacket. But, I love my 11 oz down puffy! I have not used either for their intended purpose for well over a month. My umbrella is all the rain protection I need in these warm rains, and the down puffy has only been used as a pillow. I¢ll buy a 2-ounce blow-up ultralight pillow. I think my base weight is now down in the seven pound range.The reunion with Frodo is joyous. I got all steamed up beforehand. (No I didn¢t forget to put in a Princess alert there.) I was hiking through open Cumberland Valley corn and soybean fields in direct sunlight.  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...  My shirt is soaked through. Any hug she gets from me will be steamy.It is soooo good to see her again.At eight miles I walk into the village of Boiling Springs. The trail literally goes by the front of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Mid-Atlantic Region office. My good friend Karen Lutz is the Regional Director. I get to see her in her office glory and she see me glowing from my thru-hike. We have a great lunch¢pile on those calories. Her office has a photo of Karen on her 1978 AT thru-hike. My, what a big pack you have. A Kelty Tioga.The stream outside the AT office had the cleanest water I have seen on the AT. It¢s flowing directing from the springs of Boiling Springs. This is ¢boiling¢ as in the action of boiling up out of the earth, not hot temperature. Karen: ¢It is 54 degrees now in the height of summer and it is 54 degrees in the middle of winter." It is so good to spend such time with a dear friend this way. I hike back out at 12:30 http://www.trailjournals.com/j...  and Frodo picks me up before 5:00 at a road crossing with nearly 17 miles done.  In one of two "rock mazes" mentioned in the guidebook I christen a section the "Lemon Snuggler" since it reminded me of the Lemon Squeeze back in New Jersey, but less tight.  http://www.trailjournals.com/j... I am going to treat myself to an Epsom Salts bath. http://www.trailjournals.com/j...And here we close the curtain on our hero and heroine, as they fall into each others arms and ¢¦.