Date: 2018-06-20
From: Annapolis Rocks camp

To: Waynesboro PA
Miles today: 16.1

After leaving camp this morning, we found some trail magic. One of glow sticks friends had given her specific location and directions for a bottle of whiskey that they had hidden right off the trail last year. She and ibex hiked ahead and by the time I walked up they were just popping the top. Since the girls were celebrating their three month trailiversary today, of course we did three shots apiece to start our day. Nothing like hiking 16 miles with a headwind of Jack Daniels. Suffice to say, the morning kinda flew by for me. The terrain was easy once again and since we had plans to meet my uncle Ray at Pen Mar park at 3, I just powered through the day on snacks alone. It rained for a bit during my last climb and made the descent down large boulders more slippery than I¢d prefer. I walked into the park just after 2:30 and soon saw Ray pull into the lot. He greeted me and noted my smell immediately. I hugged him because I¢m a jerk. He had brought a whole smorgasbord of goodies that I helped him unload from the vehicle onto the picnic tables. I noticed he had put towels on the seats of the car and I asked him if our collective essence had stayed in the vehicle after my parents had borrowed it and slackpacked us for a few days. He said they considered torching the vehicle after they got it back. He and I chatted for a few before chef rolled up and eventually glow stick, show pony and ibex too. We feasted on brats, salad, brownies, chips and salsa and sodas. The beer he brought had to stay in the car according to the park ranger. We also had a surprise visit from Ms. Janet, a trail famous angel who travels up and down the AT corridor each summer in her van helping out hikers, usually with a cold drink or a lift somewhere. She imparted some nuggets of wisdom for us as we are approaching the halfway point: 1) Keep your protein uptake up or your body will eat itself. 2) Be diligent about checking for ticks. 3) Don¢t go crazy trying to increase our mileage averages. Good advice all around. Soon after, we loaded everything and ourselves back into Rays vehicle and headed down to the cobblestone inn where we were gifted two rooms for the evening by my generous aunt and uncle. Ray had a bit of work to do from his laptop and waited downstairs in the lobby while we all showered and changed for dinner. The consensus choice was a sushi restaurant that had favorable reviews online and Ray drove us down. We grabbed a table and when we learned that the place was BYOB, Ray sprang up to grab all the beer that we couldn¢t drink in the park from the cooler out in his car. With a table full of bottled beer, we chowed down on some seriously high quality sushi (in PA?) and had a great time. Ray offered to pick up the tab on one condition. He is now a successful thru-hiker and I have several friends that can corroborate. Ray returned us to our hotel and we bade him farewell. It was far too short a visit but always great to see him and so kind of he and Tess to shell out such luxury for hiker trash like us. We spent the rest of the evening doing laundry at the hotel and popping into the pool for a swim. The pool was frigid and the hot tub broken so it wasn¢t long before I was up in the room for another hot shower. Tried to stay awake long enough to watch some South Park but I¢m 89 years old these days and was out well before midnight.