Date: 2016-05-14
From: Yellow Springs Campsite

To: 501 Shelter
Miles today: 22.0
Weather: clear sky

I didn't sleep too well last night - lots of things woke me up, including the fob light on my down jacket (pillow). I got moving around eight and made it to the Rausch Gap shelter around ten, enjoying the easy terrain. I filled up on water (so clear, so nice) then moved on. I reached the base of the climb up to Penn Shelter, which sits on the northern edge of an imposing ridge, around 1230 and stopped for lunch and to air out my feet. Expecting a thunderstorm, I got moving quickly, resuming my hike at 1300. I ran into trail angels at a parking lot just prior to my climb and got a Gatorade, which doubled my liquid supply for the coming 7.5 miles to Penn shelter - yesss. Believing the weather man's claims of impending doom, I raced my happy ass up and across that mountain. Before I knew it, I'd reached the ridge line and started booking it across. Somewhere along the way, I think I lost Little Lego Loc - he fell out of my hat. I also lost a bottle of HEET today, which is slightly devastating. I'll cope. Midway across the mountain, my energy died, then the rock fields came. I was hustling against a coming storm... ugh. The ocks slowed me way down, and I got to Penn Shelter around 1550, ready to keel over. Toast and Dill were there, and we all talked about how broken we were - Dill, back on the floor and feet up the wall screaming 'everything hurts and I'm dying!' We then started talking about the 501 shelter and pizza four miles hence relative to the unreliable water supply that would be a .4 mile round trip - fuck that. We rallied and decided to make a move for 501, each of us pulling out headphones to use music to power through. ALEXANDER HAMILTON!The hike down to 501 was largely on a dirt road - very nice. Validated our decision. I got here around 1745, after navigating one last rock field. Thank you, PA. Inside, I found Backbone, Sooner or Later, and a handful of other hikers chowing down on some pizza - Backbone had a piece at the ready to pass to me when I walked in the door (yay friends!). Oh, the forecast changed to 40% chance of rain at 1600 and 0% chance at 1800. ... but a storm rolled in with fervor just five minutes before we'd been told to go out to meet our pizza delivery guy, and Toast, Dill, and I spent ten minutes huddling under a pine tree in the pouring rain waiting for that damn car. The pizza was good though; I ate five pieces. Thoroughly sated, I pulled out my food bag and laid its contents out on the table - I'm finding that there are certain things in my pantry that I just won't eat, and that's extra weight, so it's weight that I'm shucking here. Backbone, seeing my dried goods and bagged grained and legumes all lined up in neat rows, had an epiphany and bestowed upon me a trail name that I quite like: Gourmet. He says it's either that or Fancy Feast. I'll nod to my European inclinations. I'm gonna go just 16 miles on average over the coming days to give my body a chance to heal (and allow the postal system to work its magic). I'm still working on my trail legs too, so it'll serve to help me get acclimatized and such. I've done 47 miles over the past two days coming out of an injury. There's really no reason for such a robust pace. I took meds three times today. So I'm gonna linger around here tomorrow morning, charge my external battery, and have a nice breakfast of cold pizza. The world can wait.