Date: 2015-05-21
From: Unnamed Campsite

To: Unnamed Campsite
Miles today: 22.0

I managed to sleep about 10 hours last night, which is an enormous amount, even with waking up a few times. I think a combination of not eating enough and being drained of my blood by bugs made me so tired. I left about 7 as usual, doing the now routine flicking of the caterpillars from my tent. There seems to be marginally less of them today. I am now fairly confident that all soil in the forest is actually caterpillar poop though.Today was cool again, with only a little bit of sun. There were a few moments of drizzle, but fortunately nothing rain gear worthy. The rocks that Pennsylvania is famous for started to make an appearance today. There were many sections with small rocks (ankle breakers) and big rocks (knee busters). It slowed me down a little. I hurt my ankle a couple times, but nothing serious. At about 10am, I passed Jax and her dog Callie. I met them weeks ago at Bears Den, and we've met a couple more times since. We agreed to meet at the 501 shelter at lunchtime.The 501 shelter is particularly special, because it is another one that has all four walls, two doors, windows, and even a giant skylight. It is pretty much a big shed with bunkbeds, a table, chairs, some hiker boxes. It was actually better equipped than some hostels! But best of all, you can order food from the nearby town. I arrived at the shelter earlier than Jax, but found brownies and biscuits left as trail magic. I ate some, and then when Jax arrived we ordered a pizza. I stayed in the shelter for 2 hours before reluctantly moving on. The trail was rocky again, but not too bad. Towards the end of the day I bumped into another hunter, in full camouflage. I think he was the one who left some trail magic by the road in the form of trail mix nuts and fruits. As I am writing this, I can hear distant gunshots. I walked for a few miles through woods that didn't seem to have any place to camp, as the trees were so thick and the ground so rocky. Eventually, I walked by a site with a hiker named Tejas set up. I set up next to him. We were later joined by Archangel and Jax. When I was eating dinner with Tejas, we talked about a very common topic- why we are on the trail. This is fairly easy to answer, and for me the answer is pretty automatic these days. A much harder to question to answer would be, "Why are you still on the trail?" An obvious answer is because I haven't finished it yet. But anything deeper than that is hard to think about, without seriously undermining all the psychological effort used to hike every day.These days, my feet are much better than before. I don't have to burst and bandage them every night and morning any more. But they still feel constantly tender and sore, even in the tougher parts. My toenails are also in constant danger. My regrowing nail is a worrying shape. I can't even jog along the trail because my feet are still too sensitive, even without severe blisters. However, I can sleep a little better without constant blister agony at every angle. I would advise future ATers to try to get hardened feet before going on the trail- break in your skin and your boots. It'll save you a lot of heartache (and foot ache) later on.Tomorrow, I have about 14ish miles to go into Port Clinton. The town is expensive and booked up, so I'm going to camp in the Pavilion for free. I am very excited to go to Walmart and finally get everything I need.