Date: 2016-07-06
From: Anteitam Shelter

To: Birch Run Shelter
Miles today: 20.8
Weather: scattered clouds

Slept awful last night in the shelter. When I arrived at 7:30 no one was in the shelter and I didn't have the energy to set up my tent. So I crashed in the shelter. Bad choice as it was so hot and muggy I couldn't just sleep on top of my bag like I would do in the tent. I tossed and turned and didn't sleep much. It was the muggiest night on the trail thus far. When I got up around 6 am I noticed the shelter was infested with barn spiders. I'm glad I didn't know that last night while trying to sleep. I got on trail at around 6:45. A 1/2 mile up the trail was a state park where I was able to fill up on water. I realized today is exactly 3 months on the trail. I pushed on and knew this was going to be a super hot day. By 7:30 when I arrived at the next shelter I was already soaked with sweat. I rested for a bit at the shelter and saw cake. I pushed on with a steep climb in front of me up chimney rocks. It was slow going up the hill with the humidity. I stopped at the blue blaze to load up with water when sleeping bear came up behind me. We decided to drop our packs and go the 100 yards to the view point. The view at chimney rocks was nice but showed how humid it really was. After chimney rocks we had a steady ridge with a few ups and downs until we started descending to route 30 by Fayetsville. On the ridge Cake and Haiku came up behind me while I was taking a water break. I had met Haiku before but never knew his trail name, cake I've seen a bunch of times since Unicoi Gap in Georgia. I actually met her the first time with Trooper while getting trail magic. Speaking of Trooper she is coming down to see me on July 22 wherever I am at that point. Cake, Haiku and myself hiked together to route 30 and then they needed to go into town to resupply. I told them I was gonna take a siesta at Caledonia State Park. The guidebook said pool area. I crossed route 30 and walked the .50 to the park. Talk about nice. The park was beautiful and the pool was fenced in with a snack bar and changing rooms, bathrooms and showers. It only cost 5 bucks. I met up with sleeping bear at the gate who had gotten ahead of me. We paid the 5 dollars and easily found the hiker area where all the packs were lined up against the fence. We laughed and took a picture as it was funny to see. I noticed I had developed a heat rash/welts around my waist where my pack strap sat and my lower back met my pack. The humidity was so thick anything that couldn't breath developed a rash. We spent the next 3 hours there swimming, eating, drinking fluids during the hottest part of the day. Cake, Haiku, hiker John and Waterfall all showed up as well as gentle giant, bear wall and Alice were all there. It was about 11 of us. I packed up at around 3 to continue on my walk. Most everyone else was packing up as I was leaving. The trail wanders through the state park past many picnic areas. There was a family reunion at one of the picnic areas and they offered me drink and food as I was hiking by. I took them up on drinks and watermelon but with the heat I just wasn't hungry for a burger and hot dogs. In about 15 minutes the whole crew was there eating. I left first as I wanted to take my time and not get to camp in the dark. I thanked the family and pushed off. Waterfall had also left right before me at the pool and I caught up to her about 3 miles up the hill. She had watermelon like me at the reunion but was too hot to eat food. We hiked leap frogging over one another. Her ankle is giving her trouble so she takes it slow and steady. She usually caught up and passed me when I stopped for a break and then I passed her after starting up again. This 8.9 miles from the pool to the shelter seemed to take for ever. With the eat it made the climbing tough. There was one step portion at the beginning and then a gradual up for 5 miles. 1 mile was a flat ridge walk. Then we had a steep decent to a cabin then back to a steep ascent. There have been several of these cabins in the last 200 miles since Shanendoah. The guidebook lists them as a named cabin and it says locked. Not sure if they are ranger cabins or what The one today looked like you could of rented it. The needless down and up was annoying especially when it was hot. Another NUNDS. Needless up, needles downs. The last 2.68 miles seemed to take 6 hours. I arrived first and the rest of the gang rolled in. The only two I didn't see were Cake and Haiku. They probably stealth camped before it got dark. Tomorrow/Today is the 1/2 gallon challenge. I'll talk more about it in the next post.