Date: 2018-05-01
From: Ed Garvey shelter

To: Rocky Run Shelter
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: broken clouds

There's a lot of talk about the rocks in Pennsylvania. But let me just share with you Maryland has no trouble showing off her rocks! And I'm not talking about diamonds! Today was a tough day. It was very hot today in the high 80s, and while you might think that we're hiking through the green tunnel the leaves haven't actually appeared yet. So with the sun overhead even though we're walking in the forest there's absolutely no shade to be found anywhere. With 70 proof sunblock on we still managed to get burned. We sweat so much that the sunblock kept running down and stinging our eyes, it looked like we were crying. We started out with one and a half liters of water each and refilled at Gathland State Park where we were also able to charge phones, use the restroom and wash with soap. And we got rid of our trash, which is very nice! We just couldn't drink enough water today. We noticed that even though we continued to drink all day we hadn't peed since our early stop at Gathland. Very unusual for me, I'm generally a peeing machine! The Rock's just pounded our feet all day and in the small sections where we were able to hike on smooth dirt it was like walking on pillows! We prayed for more but the rocks just kept coming. We had to stop several times to rest and cool down. We sat alongside the trail on a barely shaded log and enjoyed some lunch. When Traveling Ambassador approached us, we were ready to leave and we gave up our very small Shady spot so that she could sit and relax for a few minutes and rest. She's hauling an extremely heavy pack, and she's just the sweetest woman from London, a joy to talk with and I don't know how she presses on with that pack weight but she does. .The Heat and the constant relentless sun have really been trying. We're asking our bodies to do something that they've never done before, haul a 36-pound pack up and down mountains. It feels much like carrying a small house on your back. I can tell you that two days in I already have a list of items from my pack that I'll be sending home! They may not amount to much weight, but they do take up space and every ounce makes a difference. Also it takes a few days to dial in the adjustments so your pack rides comfortably. Of course it doesn't help that Brian was carrying a rock in the rock sack for his bear bag. I guess he must have felt it was very special to have a rock from NH. We found the hills and the rocks to be so relentless that we devised a plan where we would count steps 10 or 15 or 20 steps, whatever we needed and we would then take a rest for two or three breaths until we proceeded for another 10 20 30 steps whatever the case. It seemed to work well and although it felt like we were crawling we were able to manage the Heat.By the time we rolled into Rocky Run Shelter it was close to 5pm. I proceeded directly to the spring, so that we could get some much-needed water and rehydrate ourselves. It was an absolute blessing to be able to stand with our feet in the Cold Spring to soothe them. While we were filtering water Traveling Ambassador came through the camp, she wasn't staying but she had run out of water as well and she was in serious need. I had my filter there so I pumped 2 liters of water and watched her drink one and then refilled again for her. She was not staying at Rocky Run, but going to miles further north to Dahlgren Backpackers Campground which has running water and showers.A couple from New York who we had met earlier in the day were also camped out at Rocky Run. There were just a few people there, a father hiking with his daughter, a single gentleman in the shelter, the couple from New York who we call the dynamic duo and another father daughter duo who we also met earlier in the day. It was a pretty quiet evening, we hung our bear bags and again we were in bed sometime between 7:30 and 8 a.m (hiker midnight) feeling much refreshed from rehydrating. As I lay there however I told Brian I felt like someone had pummeled my feet with a hammer. I took two Advil and tried to drift off to sleep. Sleep came difficult for both of us neither one of us had a good night's rest, it was very hot and one of the neighboring tents had a snorer. In addition to that after dark someone came down with a headlamp to hang a bear bag on the pole, and couldn't master it so there was 10 minutes of clinking and clanging as they were trying to get their bag hung.I forgot to mention yesterday that I received my first trail magic! When we arrived at Ed Garvey shelter seriously low on water I was going to head .4 miles down a steep trail to the spring to get some. When a day hiker who was at the shelter realized this he called me over and gave us all his water. I was hesitant to take it all but he was hiking down hill and lived not far. When I thanked him for the trail magic he was really touched that I called it that. It meant something to him to provide trail magic to a thru hiker.