Date: 2006-05-29
From: Alec Kennedy Shelter 

To: Cove Mtn Shelter 
Miles today: 25.5
Weather: scattered clouds

I was still so exhausted from the past couple of days that I decided to sleep in this morning. I also thought that it would be a good way to get a little space from Grizzly, whom I could tell I was suffocating. The second part of the strategy didn¢t quite work out since I woke up around 8 to the sound of Grizzly yelling, ¢Overflow, are you EVER getting up?¢ I was ready to go shortly after he left, but I waited around for a half hour so as to create a sort of buffer zone before setting out.It was HOT. Really, really, hot. The morning hike went through open fields where the sun could beat directly on me in all of its glory. It was also very humid, which was an excellent combination. At least the terrain was flat, so I flew at above 3 mph all the way into Boiling Springs, where I stopped at the ATC offices for water. Grizzly, Shufflefoot, Cookie, and Ajax were all there. I sat at the picnic table on the deck for a while, eating my breakfast and trying to cool off.I had an interesting experience with groundhogs again today. The first one jumped out of the tall grasses right in front of me, moseyed down the trail, and ducked into a burrow. The problem was that when I tried to walk past his little home, he would jump out at me and hiss. This amused me for a little while before I circled around him. Shortly afterwards I saw what I thought was a dead and squished groundhog, but as I stepped down next to it, it jumped up and ran. I tried to get Grizzly to hike in front of me for a while so he could see the groundhog action, but it wasn¢t to be.Close to the Scott Farm Trail Center, where I was planning to stop for lunch, I ran into a snake. We walked the rest of the way to the center together where, tad da!, the rest of the group we were¢¦ all there . I sat at the picnic table on the deck for a while, eating my breakfast and trying to cool off. (Woah, this is one of those pages where you can keep flipping over and continue on forever. An Infinity Storey!) ¢¦trying to catch were all sprawled out on the grass. A few people were added to the group ¢ Casino, Ramble-On, and Treefingers. Two of them were carrying instruments, so there was music to be had. Snake and I meandered down to the river and cooled off under the bridge, where we saw Grizzly walking. I yelled, ¢Hey Grizzly, do you still want to catch up?¢ and he held up his poles like he was a winner.Eating lunch on the lawn on this lazy, hot afternoon will be one of my best memories from the trail. Unfortunately, we still had a long way to walk so we had to break our little reverie.At one of the road crossings, there was some awesome trail magic from Boy Floyd, whom I had met at the Rice Field Shelter and was celebrating his Poppy¢s birthday. Unfortunately, this was where my delicate hiker balance fell apart. All it took was for Grizzly to say something Grizzly-like, and Snake to point out that if I hiked ahead of them today, I would never see them again. The tow things together made me think too deeply about my inability to retain friends and the pressures I put on myself with my July 28 deadline and I fell apart. I found a beautiful overlook with a nice bench where I collapsed in uncontrollable sobs. When I calmed down a bit I hiked on and I ended up catching Snake and Grizzly again who were both looking a bit uncomfortable after my scene. Grizzly and I got into a small squabble, and as he turned to leave I lost my temper and threw my poles and bag into the woods. It was not my best moment, but it made me realize how ridiculous I was acting which made me laugh, and the balance tipped back to the middle. Sometimes I don¢t handle my frustration in a productive manner, and this was one of those times.I spent the rest of the night walking and talking with Snake, and by the time I reached the shelter, I was back to my old self. I had planned to go into Duncannon tonight, and Thumper said he would go with me, but it was really rocky terrain and dark when we got in so I changed my mind.