Date: 2015-07-12
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Day 5 Sunday 7-12-15Hudson drops Acorn & myself off at LaBonne¢s Market in Salisbury. The market was small & cold & expensive but was OK for what we needed. It is also the only choice in town. We resupplied some snack & day stuff. Both of us were carrying too much dinner food. We overestimated out appetites. We should have known better. I even gave away a Jamaican rice & chicken dinner & a Spam Pak at Bearded Woods. I had brought 2 packs of Spam at my wife¢s urging and ate one a couple of days ago. God I hate Spam! Nasty stuff! We left the market about 8:30 AM & hiked up rt. 41 to the AT road crossing. Most of the trail is relatively mellow today. Still hot but not as humid as before. We stopped at Riga Shelter for a leisurely lunch. The view is nice. Nasty approach. The shelter is pretty rough. It looks and smells like there was a recent fire that burned part of the shelter front. There is rotten and burned wood & is not maintained well. Definitely not a place to stay voluntarily. I wonder if somebody¢s cooking stove went wild. I have seen them light up a few times. My white gas stove lit up once. It had a bad fuel bottle gasket. Melted my gloves in some nasty cold weather. Anyway, on to Brassie Brook Shelter. For the first time, we actually stay in the shelter tonight mainly because we did not like the tent sites. They are mostly bare damp earth.   Earplugs for Acorn again. We arrive about 2:30. About 6.4 miles in about 6 hours including breaks. Five hours really counting just our lunch break. The next camping area is only about 2 miles but we have to cross Bear Mountain first and we hear that the down is difficult. Better to do that fresh.Today¢s privy has half walls & a roof. The last two had no walls or roofs. One was close to the camping area. Acorn has not been happy with them. I guess that she just holds everything in. We both like to sleep at the sidewalls so were are at opposite sides of the shelter. Three male hikers came in about 8Pm or so. We were already in our sleeping bags. They are a bit on the noisy side & get up about 4:30 to hike north¢¦still a bit noisy. We think that they want to see the sun rise from the top of Bear Mountain. There are 2 bird nests in the shelter rafters. The momma birds are not happy with us. TRESSPASSERS!!We both have been doing daily tick checks hoping that we get no imbedded deer ticks. So far, so good. I am deliberately wearing light colored clothing & long pants to help tick check. My right shoulder has been waking me up most night. I just finished 4 months of physical therapy for a thoroughly torn bicep and undefined rotator cuff issues. At it¢s worst in February, I could not reach my back pocket with my right hand. I have about 90% of the mobility & some of the strength back. I think using the hiking poles helps. I brought some ibuprofen for night shoulder pain. It helps.The trail seems to be getting a bit less rocky which makes for better footing. So it is less tiring. I think that yesterday¢s NEARO day was good for us. & hope to start making more daily miles. While I was in LaBonne¢s market, a man had gotten some bagels in a plastic bag. He dropped the bag & lost 2 onto the floor. He picked them up, put them back in the bag & paid for them with his other items. I guess that the 10 second rule applied.