Date: 2011-05-15
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter

To: Johns Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 26.6
Weather: scattered clouds

(In which I hike 26.2+ miles in honor of the Pittsburgh marathon)The night brings heavy rains again, in what is starting to look like a familiar weather pattern. In the night I hear the whine of a mosquito and dread more bites. I take out a head net that I found in a hiker box in Daleville. The head net makes the air around my face feel stale and stuffy, and falls against my face. I hear the mosquito buzzing by the head net and wonder if it can land on the net and bite me through it. I zip my bag up and discover the asymmetry of my previous bites, since my right hand zippered bag exposes my right arm more than my left. In the morning, I find several new bug bites, including one on my lower lip to match my still slightly swollen upper lip. Bugs, it would seem, are a problem that I still need to figure out how to solve.My plan for the day was hatched months ago, when I first realized that I would be on the trail during the Pittsburgh marathon. Two years ago I ran the Pittsburgh marathon in what was my first and as of yet only organized marathon, and this year several of my friends will be running again or for their first time. Having planned it earlier and forgotten it until last night, the challenge seems somewhat anti-climactic, since I've already hiked marathon-plus days several times. I stick with the plan not so much for the challenge as for the connection to the race day excitement hundreds of miles away.I start hiking at 7am, my earliest day in a while. In my experience, long hours are the key to hiking big miles more than speed (although for very big miles you need both). It is another misty day, but shortly after I arrive at the second shelter the pattern changes and a downpour begins. I sit under the shelter roof watching in amazement as torrents of rain fall on the ground in front of me. The rain is briefly joined by pea-sized hail that bounces of rocks and pounds on the roof.I eat a leisurely lunch, wondering if I will have to venture out in the deluge. After forty minutes or so, when I have eaten my fill, the weather finally lets up. No sooner does the rain stop when Mayo and Tom from the last shelter show up, thoroughly drenched and dripping through their rain gear. When they get to the shelter they stare at me, completely dry with all of my food spread out in front of me. "Man, you think you have it rough?" I say. "Think of how wet my shoes are going to get hiking in all of that wet grass now!" The rain must have washed away some of their sympathy, because they fail to see the tragedy of my plight, and Mayo starts calling me "Sun Boy" for my good weather luck.We leapfrog each other on the trail, short breaks to enjoy a view or get water putting the other ahead for the next hour or so. Mayo and Tom plan to hitch in to Glasgow, for a 24 mile day, and I am tempted by the town stop, but having set out to do 26.2, I can't back down now. I hike at my normal speed and take breaks for every view, watching the time to make sure that my projected finish time will be just before sunset. I never enter challenge mode, but the bit of extra motivation makes the day fun. It's not my longest or hardest day, but it's one of my most enjoyable 26+ mile days I've had, and that fits the Pittsburgh marathon spirit for me.The last shelter is 26.6 miles from where I started, 0.4 miles extra but close enough. I've caught up with Buffalo and German Sheppard, who has found and partially broken a new walking stick already, and I spend the last of the daylight hanging around the picnic table listening to stories and meeting the section hikers who are camping nearby.I choose a spot in the shelter, after the heavy rains of the last two nights and the afternoon, but worry about bugs. As I stay up to write, I kill dozens upon dozens of fleas that leap onto my hands from the shelter floor, and hear at least one mosquito. I'm already beginning to regret not tenting, but it is dark now, and I will give my head net one more try.