Date: 2016-06-10
From: NY Route 17

To: Campsite at mile 1383
Miles today: 11.5
Weather: few clouds

Today was yet again another very interesting day. We got up at the motel and realized that the taxi service didn't start running again until four in the afternoon. It was about 4 miles to get back to the trail and we didn't know what to do.We eventually found a nice guy named Mike who offered to give us a ride in his car. He helped out at the local church and seemed like a very nice guy. His car was older and a bit beat up though. I had to reach over to open his door from the inside since the outside door handle was broken, and the mirror on my side of the car was broken and all taped to the side of the car with duct tape. I tried putting my seatbelt on but it did not work either. As we drove down the road the seatbelt signal started beeping reminding me to put my belt on. Mike said "can you please do something with that -that's driving me crazy!" I kept trying to shove the seatbelt in but for some reason it would not go into the latch. Mike suggested just to hold the buckle in as best as I could and that would stop the noise. However the noise continued and Mike repeatedly reminded me that he was going nuts listening to the seatbelt buzzer.When he went to turn left into the hotdog stand parking lot where he was going to drop us off , Just as he turned a car came around the corner and was barreling straight at the side at my side of the car. Dr. fix it shouted out a warning yell and right before the car smashed into us Mike stomped on the gas and the car leapt into a big pothole in the hotdog stand parking lot bouncing to a dusty stop. We quickly and gratefully got out while thanking Mike for the ride and the exciting start to our day. The trail was nice in places today and in other places routed us over and on ledges like it has the past few days. There are also four or five places today where we had to climb up over rocks and even take off our packs at one point. There was one rather steep climb which appeared to be a new reroute, so the trail was not well worn in and was not at all obvious where to go or where to climb. We were climbing over a very steep ridge and I was holding onto some tree roots with my hands. I then inched up with my knee to get it up on a rock below me when I realized that I was stuck. I could not go any further up and I could not get back down either. I stayed there for a few minutes mentally dealing with the fear in my head. I was reassured to know that Dr. fix it was 20 or 30 feet down below me also making his way up the trail.It was then that I heard the reassuring voice of Dr Fix-it. "It's like a staircase except you have many more options" he suggested. This helped me to relax, take a breath and realize that -yes - I could move around, wiggle a little bit and find some more options. I finally found a way to get one of my feet onto a rock below me so I had something to push off of and I was able to get out of this tricky predicament.We're now camping up on a ridge in an attempt to stay away from mosquitoes however they've been biting me. We've eaten our dinners and are retiring to our tents for the night.He's been another exciting, fun, and quite challenging day on the Appalachian Trail. Both of us are very grateful for the opportunity to be experiencing this adventure.