Date: 2003-08-04
From: Thomsens', Laurel, MD

To: Tom's Run Shelters
Miles today: 16.3
Weather: light rain

Alone in the woods again. What a high I felt today once I got hiking! Even as I approached the first climb I was undaunted; I didn¢t fear it. It felt so good to be out here again. I did my 16.3 in six hours, maintaining a pretty steady >3mph pace. Sometimes I felt just like I was out walking on the street for exercise at home, no pack or anything. The terrain was very easy ¢ it does get easier! After all those false hopes!I¢m sure it helps that I lightened my pack (per Bushwhack¢s suggestion) by five more pounds, putting my pack weight down to 26 pounds! With food and water! When he said, ¢lighten your load,¢ I thought, I¢ve already skimmed it to the bare essentials! But I sorted through ruthlessly and found things I decided to live without ¢ my fleece (really didn¢t need it last week); my trowel; my rain jacket (haven¢t used that for weeks, even in the rain); the second water bottle I was carrying; my thermometer; my small pot (now I just have the large one); and of course, the heaviest item ¢ my tent, or actually the rain fly, groundsheet, poles and stakes; as well as various other sundry items. Some things I put in my bounce box, which I¢ll see next in four days; others I just left with mom and dad. We¢ll see how being without a tent goes; it sure feels great not to be carrying it! When I left Pearisburg I determined to be less dependent on the shelters, and try to put in a few extra miles each day even if it meant stealth camping. But that didn¢t happen. The shelters are so convenient! Now I¢m completely dependent on them¢¦I¢ve often wished this summer that I was better able (or able at all¢¦) to identify trees and plans, and offer a more thorough description of the forest I¢m walking through. The best I seem to be able to do is distinguish between fir and deciduous! However, the forest changes so many times over the course of just one day¢s hiking it never ceases to amaze me. I would be hard pressed to pick one description to characterize any one day¢s terrain. Just today I was admiring the corridor of thick firs I was walking through (reminiscent of Lucy¢s wardrobe of fur coats that turned into fir trees), when the East side of the Trail opened up to reveal a fire-damaged section, now thick with fresh underbrush. Within minutes the Trail turned into a dry sandy path, the deciduous trees on either side sparse, the underbrush thick. Much of the day the trees overhead were not tall or thick enough to block the sun ¢ which, as you know, I love to be in the sun!It was a pleasant drive from Laurel up to Caledonia; we started in the rain, but by the time we reached Fayetteville it was gorgeous out. Might I suggest the veggie sub at Mama¢s II Italian Pizzeria in Fayetteville, which I ate for lunch ¢ surprisingly delicious!I got on the Trail about 12:15pm, and as I said, made good time. Not too bad for having slept less than five hours last night! I got a little ambitious trying to organize maildrops, and it took much longer than I anticipated. Still didn¢t get quite as organized as I wanted to.So just now I¢m sitting at Tom¢s Run Shelters after having bathed in the stream and bundled up in my fleece hat, Duofold shirt, and pants. That water feels good, but it is cold!!When I first got here I lay down on the picnic table bench and stared at the sky, thinking and daydreaming for nearly an hour. As has been common so far in Pennsylvania, there are two shelters here at this site. Suddenly I heard a loud scraping type noise, almost mechanical. A woman came down the Trail from the North several times, pulling a wagon with car-camping gear; next carrying a big ice chest; and finally a man and little girl came with her, each wearing a small daypack, the man pulling a sled with stuff on it; all the while two dogs in tow. The man is on the large side and seems to be lazy ¢ judging by the fact she carried most of the stuff and made multiple trips, and how I heard him say, ¢Gimme that¢¦¢holding his hand out, causing her to get up and bring it to him. I¢m trying to figure out where they came from, since in my book the closest road access North is 3.4 miles away!Neither of us makes any moves to speak to each other.