Date: 2008-07-25
From: .3 past Boiling Springs

To: stream
Miles today: 17.7
Weather: scattered clouds

6:30am It is the kind of morning you wake up happy to be alive. The birds are singing up a storm, the sun is shining on the dew-covered grasses. It's a "wet-feet morning" for sure! Lots of what Sara called wine or jewel berries (if I am remembering correctly). Oh, it doesn't get any better than this! I love these berries. Walking along, stopping to pick the plentiful red berries--like candy on a plant! I stop every chance I get. It's a good thing I'm not squeamish about spiders! Besides being a "wet-feet day", it is also a "web-face day"! Walked through so many webs I'm feeling like silk. They are stretched across the trail and I feel bad when I accidently walk through them. Such work they must go through again now!Lots of walking through corn fields today, or through fields with numerous road crossings. In fact, in the next 18 miles, the AT will cross more than 15 roads, including US11, the Harrisonburg Pike on a million dollar pedestrian bridge. 12:19pm I sit beside the Conodoguinet Creek eating lunch--a most bizarre combination, with a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch, grape kool aid, cheese and saltines and peanut m and m's. Because I did not feel like cooking and my planned lunch was plain ramen noodles and also, I was in the mood for cereal since with my hasty departure from camp this morning I did not make time for it. I have enjoyed today thus far, especially the plentiful berries, including the most delicious wine berry. Yum! This is my favorite by far. I stop every time I see some. What could be better than picking your food right off the plant, eating it immediately? The trail today has been mostly level, YES! You read that right, I said mostly level, a word not usually associated with the AT. But it was today. One of the bridges I crossed today was over route 81, closed to cars but open to hikers. The workers on the bridge had lots of questions for me... how long have I been hiking? What do I eat? How far am I going? How far do I go each day? etc. I stayed for a few minutes, but boy, it was hot out there standing in the sun. And I am always so conscious of my having no sun screen on. There is something infinitely soothing about sitting beside a creek, just watching the water go by, listening to the songs of the cicadas from the tops of the trees. There is a slight breeze that makes the grass around me sway and dance. I will take a few minutes to read some of John Irving...a great way to spend an afternoon! ...later. The day dragged on and I ended up donning the green veil again. My feet aren't doing so well, the blisters on my heels have only gotten bigger and the bottoms are so sensitive I must watch my every step, trying not to step with a rock in the center. I was hoping with the new boots the blisters would go away. Of course it didn't help to hike an entire day in soaking wet socks. At this point I have no idea what to do to make it better. I found a nice campsite near a stream, only about 8 miles from town tomorrow. Lots of gnats and mosquitoes though so another dinner in my tent. This is getting to be a habit! Am looking forward to town tomorrow, hoping for some time to relax and read.