Date: 2005-04-06
From: Hurricane Shelter (4300') Va

To: Partnership Shelter Va, (3220')
Miles today: 20.8
Weather: clear sky

It¢s 2a.m., so technically it is 4/7/2005, I can¢t sleep anymore, but it¢s too dark to hike. Alan and I got up by alarm this morning, normally I cringe at that, but today it was okay, the alarms went off at 6:30 and we eventually got up and started hiking at 7:45. In the first hour or so we ran into KB & SB tenting on the side of the trail, KB has kinda been sick for a little while and this morning SB was sick, they were out of toilet paper so I gave them mine, wished them luck and headed on (they were only 2 miles from the next town). Alan and I did 10 miles before lunch, which is always a good thing. Oh yeah remember how yesterday I said that I had thought I had missed the shelter, turns out the guidebook was a little wrong and had a couple of things misplace on that section of the trail. We took about 45 minutes for lunch and I purified a lot of water. I think I got a little dehydrated today or yesterday, so I drank over a gallon of water today, to try and replenish myself.Alan and I hiked on and arrived at the famous Partnership Shelter at 3:15. We were blown away 21 some miles by 3:15, that¢s good hiking, or fast hiking at least. We had planned to try and hike another 10 miles today to Atkins, Va; but it wasn¢t worth it we were too tired and if we had gone on we would have been worthless the next day. So we stayed at the famous Partnership Shelter, which I have heard about from thruhikers for over a month. It has a shower, but the water is not turned on. So the Partnership Shelter is one tenth of a mile form a visitor center where there are real bathrooms a coke machine and an outside phone, next to the phone scribbled on the wall are local pizza delivery places, so we called them up, talked to them nice and convinced them t0 deliver pizza about a 2 minute walk from our shelter. We ordered for Alan and me 2 large pizzas, Buffalo wings, garlic bread, and a 2 liter of Mountain Dew. So I guess you understand why it¢s so famous.I ate my fair share and saved 2 slices for breakfast and then went straight to bed at probably around 5:00, which is likely why I am wide awake right now.So we hiked through the forest again, which is still in winter colors a few flowers have blossomed, but most of the forest is still bleak, but the birds are out and about and spring will come soon enough, it hit 80 degrees today, or that¢s what it said when Alan listened to the radio today, I believe it. I listened to his MP3 player today, gosh sometimes I forget how cool music is; I might have to get myself and MP3 or radio or something before I finish this trip. So overall today can be marked as a good day.So I¢m still awake, so I¢ll take this opportunity to talk about the day to day life of thruhiking. I¢ve been at this for over a month now so this is no longer a joke and I can now easily refer to myself as a thruhiker. SLEEPING, every night I seem to always stay in a place with a roof, usually a shelter which can usually sleep anywhere from 6 ¢ 15, almost no 2 shelters are ever the exact same design, so I try and sleep on a thin foam pad on top of a wooden floor, its very hard. So I roll over constantly inside of my down mummy bag (which is way too hot right now) trying to get comfortable, I usually end up on top of one of my arms or something and wake up an hour or 2 later with an arm or hand that has lost circulation and fallen asleep. I also for unknown reasons drool (is that how you spell it?) a lot out here, I never drool at home, maybe its because I don¢t carry a pillow, yep no pillow I¢ll usually try and use a shirt or something rolled up as a pillow, but it in no way compares to a real pillow. Then without fail all of us have to get up at some point in the night to pee, probably because we al usually have a hot meal that needs a substantial amount of water directly before going to bed. So al in all, I end up sleeping fine but I wake up multiple times in the night. FOOD, I eat lots of calories, as many as I can carry. As of now for breakfast I have 2 breakfast bars, usually some sort of cereal or granola bars. For lunch I usually have Peanut Butter, Honey Roast Crunchy, is a favorite at the moment. I¢ll have anywhere from 14 to 12 a jar on crackers or a flour tortilla, sometimes with honey on top. Sometimes instead of Peanut Butter, I¢ll have a block of cheese and summer sausage or pepperoni. For dinner I¢ll have a number of different things, Liptons sides are a big one mixed with some sort of meat or fish, I carry a lot of the foil tuna packets. I also have dehydrated pasta and meat dishes from home; once in a while I¢ll have a freeze dried meal from Mountain House. I always carry some Ramen noodles for an extra back up dinner. After dinner I¢ll have hot chocolate if I have any with me. During the day I eat an assortment of G.O.R.P. and candy bars, mainly snickers. I also have Tang to mix in with my drinks and dried apples from home to snack on. That¢s all I can think up now and I¢m actually getting sleepy again, so I¢ll try to go back to bed.3:30 am