Date: 2010-07-22
From: Wildcat shelter 

To: William Brien shelter
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: broken clouds

Day 100: One Hundred Days!William Brien shelter 10:22Woke up after a chilly, rainy evening. It was aaaalmost cold. I toweled down my tent and packed up. Had breakfast with One Life, Scatters and Dumba$$, and then we were on our way. LOVELY morning!!! Nice cooler temperature and a cool breeze. I knew it was my hundredth day, and it sorta felt like it was my birthday. Big smiles hiking the first five miles. My body felt better - I guess I was just having a really tired day yesterday? - but I wasn't going too fast. Got to a road crossing, and there was trail magic water!! I remember when there used to be coolers at the roads, and we'd all get upset if it was only water. Now, it's a life-saver. Seriously, I don't know what we would do without the generosity of the area trail angels. We got roadside water three times today. And good thing because there are just no sources on the trail in this area!I took a break and filled up and had a snack. Scatters caught up when I was talking to Andrew, a sobo. We stayed in the shade and almost got chilled (?!) when One Life showed up. We thought the rocks were done after Pennsylvania, but there are some serious boulders in NY. The fun kind! The rest of the day was bouncing around nice, foresty trail and then climbing up and down STEEP rock faces.  With such great weather, this may have been one of my most fun days in a while!! We took a lot of breaks, too, which is nice. We needed breaks with such full-body climbing. And it wasn't big, long uphills then big, long downhills... It was an endless chain of little steep ups and little steep downs. Beautiful landscape, too! If you're up for a long weekend of hiking. I highly suggest the New York section of the AT so far. Well, because of the many breaks, we were running late. After a few miles in the enchanted forest if chipmunks, I got to the first shelter and made dinner because I was starving. One Life showed up and decided to stay there for the night. Scatters and I had planned to press on to the next shelter, 5 miles up the trail. So, I had dinner with One Life and we chatted about how it's gonna get harder from here on out. There are definitely highs and lows out here, and it isn't always easy. I was hurting yesterday, but today flipped my mood right around. I wished him an early bedtime as I left around 7:30 to get through five miles before dark. I was running low on water and REALLY hoping for one more dose of trail magic water. No go. But! There was a stream!! I took a few minutes to fill up and was on my way. Then it got dark and I was night hiking again. No worries. Just a bit slower...I made it to the next shelter and Scatters was already tented up. We are the only two here. The shelter is a bit gross, so we both tented. Juggler, an unofficial ridge runner, showed up and chatted with us about the trail for while before leaving, and now it's time for BED!I cannot believe I've been out here for 100 days.Thanks for the comments, all! I'll try to take it easy, though I'm already feeling better. All three of us have been extra achey (achy?) since NYC, and I think it was mostly just getting back into the swing if things. (oh and Sarah, the "st" is my stumble count for the day!!)