Date: 2003-05-21
From: Wise Shelter

To: Troutsdale Va.
Miles today: 16.0

The rain woke me up at 2:30 this morning. As I rolled over, Papermaker asked me what you did when it was raining like this. I told him when it was 2:30 in the morning, you roll over and go back to sleep. Which is what I did. So much for a sunrise view!When I woke up again,it was still drizzeling rain.We sat in the tent as I fixed hot drinks and breakfast.Up to this point I had not had to set up or take down my tent in the rain.I figured my streak of luck was going to run out today.Just as we fininshed eating ,the rain stopped>I get to go one more day with my record intact.Of course with last night's rain,the trail has become even muddier.The kind of mud that tries to suck your boots off and lay claim to your hiking sticks.We stop at Old Orchard Shelter for lunch.I fix us a hot meal to celebrate our ninth anniversary.I fix Chicken Carbona.The recipe is on the back of the package of chicken.All it is is macaroni and cheese with chicken added,and some bacon bits.I am fresh out of bacon bits,so I skip those.The hikers at the shelter wish us Happy Anniversary.As we trudge thru the mud,Papermaker begins to sweat anyone picking us up at the end of the trail.We are not even there and he is sweating a ride.We finally emerge from the trail and walk up to the main road.We set a time limit to catch a ride before we start walking in to town.It is still foreign to both of us to be hitch hiking.Papermaker says no one in their right mind would stop and pick up two smelly,wet, and muddy hikers.I tell him that I will pray for someone not in their right mind to come by.just as we approach the time limit we have set,a truck pulls over.The driver has the heater on,and we gratefully climb in.He apologises for the condition of his truck.I just smile at Papermaker.A few days previously Hoover and Jitterbug had drove our truck to Troutsdale for us.We were told by the pastor whose church runs the hostel to park the truck parallel to the bank.We had passed that informaton onto Jitterbug.The driver said he could take us straight to the hostel.When we got there ,no truck was to be found.I ex;plained to him about the bank parking,so he drove us over to the bank.No truck there either.He graciouly drove us all over town looking for the truck.The whole town probably was two blocks.Papermaker is beginning to panic by now.He does not too crisis well.We finally track down the preacher just as he is going into prayer meeting at the church.Our truck is parked up at the hostel next to the embankment,and was hidden by a van.We all had a good laugh over that one!Papermaker had been craving a cheeseburger all day,so we stopped at the only place in town to eat.We got a room at the FoxInn Bed and Breakfast for the night.It is a beautiful house situated in the middle of woods with a great view from all sides.It is run by former thru hikers Mark and Janet Holmes.Our room is comfortable and very clean.We both get a hot shower and I do the laundry,much to Papermaker's delight.I download my emails and find that my hiking partner,Mudbutt,is coming back on the trail in a few more weeks.She finally found a doctor who told her what she wanted to hear .I am so delighted to be able to look forward to hiking with her again.Some hikers have questioned if I will be able to get to Katahdin by having to wait for her to get her hiking legs and speed up.To those I can honestly say,this hike has been very little fun since she left.The end of the days find me basically by myself.Something I never wanted to do in the first place.The trail is much more enjoyable with someone.You may hike all day by yourself but at the end of the day it is really nice to have someone to share with.It is a quiet evening ,saying goodbye is so very hard.I have really enjoyed hiking with Papermaker,he always sees things to point out to me.Things that I would miss if I was by myself.