Date: 2008-06-02
From: RPH Shelter

To: RPH Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Chills? Check¢¦ Fatigued? Check¢¦ Fever? I¢ve been sneezing for a day or so¢¦ Aching Joints? Not all over but my left knee aches. That was enough for the triggers to go off in my head. I¢ll be damned if I¢m letting Lyme Disease end my hike. Just to be sure, I did another thorough tick check even though I routinely do one every night. Sure enough, there was a tiny nymph deer tick attached to my left leg pit. I¢m not usually a ¢let¢s go to the doctor¢ person, but if I did have Lyme Disease, it helps immensely to catch and treat it early. Fortunately, the shelter is 100¢ from a road, so I had some options. Furthermore, I had even another option as this shelter had a phone book (normally used for food deliveries). As I was contemplating some tough hitching or perhaps an expensive taxi ride, a 30-year-old couple park their car and walk down to the shelter. It turns out that Felix & Pilot were ¢97 thru-hikers, now married. They just decided to stop at one of their favorite shelters while on their way from Massachusetts to Indiana. To throw in an increased ¢wow¢ factor, Pilot just graduated from medical school yesterday. I¢m not sure I believe in a traditional western religion God, but this was by far the most ¢What are the chances?¢ moment that I¢ve had in a long time. They both jumped on their phones, located the nearest walk-in clinic, gave me a ride there, and gave me the phone number of another thru-hiker friend who lives 10 miles away. I swear, thru-hikers are like a huge fraternity. It doesn¢t matter what year or what age, thru-hikers care for each other. There are several different types of trail magic, but I¢m going to go out on a limb and say that rides are my favorite kind. Hikers may not NEED trailside coolers with soda (although very awesome), but hikers sometimes NEED rides into town. I honestly can¢t wait to go up into the Whites after my hike and just offer hikers rides anywhere they need to go. It is a HUGE help. To make a short story even shorter, I don¢t have Lyme Disease. I showed the doctor the tick which was attached to my knee and went over my symptoms with him. He successfully convinced me that I don¢t have it. Better safe than sorry though. I went across the street to McDonald¢s and had my first Big Mac in years to celebrate. Actually, part of the reason that I got a Big Mac was because NY is ridiculously expensive and my usual double cheeseburger was $1.70 rather than $1.00. I called Skeeter (Felix¢s friend) and he said he would be able to drive me back to the trail in a few hours. (He¢s a normal person with a job.) Fine by me. Since there wasn¢t much to do in town, I headed over to the grocery store and hung out there for a few hours. Spending a long time in a grocery store is fun. I bought 98% DEET bug spray (which will probably give me cancer), ¢Neapolitan Dynamite¢ Ben & Jerry¢s, sherbet for any other hikers back at the shelter, 2 mouse traps (1 to carry, 1 for the shelter), and a Discovery magazine with a feature ¢Top 75 Modern Science Questions,¢ which was an awesome read back at the shelter. Skeeter came right on time and drove me back to the shelter, where I lounged with ¢The Professor¢ and ¢Boots¢ for the rest of the day. ¢The dangers of life are infinite, and safety is among them.¢ ~ Goethe