Date: 2014-07-10
From: Campsite Near PA 325

To: 501 Shelter
Miles today: 29.1
Weather: broken clouds

Since I was already behind schedule I wanted to do big miles right off the bat to make some of them up. I was up at 5:30 and hit the trail a little after 6 and was hiking fast from the get go. I was using the mixture of nervousness and adrenaline to my advantage, combined with the music I was passing slack packers who were carrying no more than five pounds on their backs. It made me feel good that I had a faster pace with a thirty pounds pack on my back, its that New York fast paced walk that gives me the extra edge.      James, a hiker who I hiked with for a bit early on in the trip but we separated after Trail Days in May was only a day ahead of me so I made it my mission to catch up with him today or tomorrow. That was a good group of guys that I miss hiking with so I'm looking forward to catching up with him and seeing where everyone is. I got to the Rausch Gap Shelter around nine and was twelve miles from where I started so I had a three mile an hour pace going which I was happy with, only eighteen miles to go and I have the whole day ahead of me, the perks of starting early. The shelter was a nice one even though it was .3 off the trail, the best thing about it was the spring was literally at the shelter so I sat there for a bit to chug some water and eat some Sour Patch Kids before heading on, oh and I may taken a caffeine pill or two (sorry mom).    The terrain was flat for a bit until the uphill after Lickdale,PA and that uphill kicked my butt, it didn't help that I was still wearing my long sleeve at the time and that thing weighted me down just with the amount of sweat it absorbed. After getting to the top, I found a spot for lunch, peeled off the nasty sweaty shirt and sat there eating some Spam and candy bars, I'm real proud of eating healthy out here. I was going through water faster than I expected and I had another seven miles to go before I got to another one so it was going to be a semi miserable next seven miles. It's hard not to think about water when you have none and you have a long ways to go, I try to think about anything and everything but water always seeps in to those thoughts and makes me thirstier. Stupid brain, wish I could turn it off sometimes.    I finally got to the next shelter and headed down to the spring and standing there is James. He was definitely surprised to see me, he knew I was behind him but thought it would be a few more days before I caught with him. We talked for a while and I asked where the rest of the group is. Guppy is ahead a few days, Tim had to get off the trail for a bit but is coming back and Grizzly left the trail which sucks, he's a good guy and had some fun times with him, hits hard when someone you know leaves the trail. James has been hiking solo for a while now so I think he enjoyed hiking together as much as I did. We were both going to the 501 shelter which is a fully enclosed shelter that is close enough to a road so you can order pizza from a local pizza place so that was our plan. Firstly though he was meeting up with a friend a few miles from the shelter for a resupply so I staid there with him for a bit. My friend called me who's house I'll be staying with at the DWG and we caught up for a bit, it's weird to think right after I got off the phone with him, he would be enjoying a beer in New York City while I'm jumping from boulder to boulder to finish up a thirty mile day, it made me laugh thinking about it.    I left James and headed to the shelter which I got to and didn't know anyone. The one downfall of hiking ahead is you leave the bubble of hikers you've been with for awhile and enter a new one and learn about a whole new cast of characters. The positive about it, is I get to put faces to all these names who I've seen in the shelter logs for the past three months. They were all nice and people started going into their horror stories from the trail, one guy got Lyme disease and two guys got a rabies from a rabid bat who scratched one and pooped on another one, I kid you not. They both just got back from the hospital and got the first series of shots, they have to go back a few more times, it's crazy the amount of things that can happen on the trail.   I didn't officially do a thirty mile day but I feel real good about what I got done today. I made up some miles but the terrain is getting rocky so that's going to slow me down a bit. Where the rumors about Virginia being flat were a complete lie, the rumors of Pennsylvania being rocky are completely true.