Date: 2017-06-15
From: Campsite at 1105.9

To: Old Stone House Road / The Pipers
Miles today: 21.5
Weather: broken clouds

In my defense, the mega-day hadn't been the plan...We all woke up at 6 am and chatted while packing up. Icy Pop was giving his girls a tutorial in blister popping...it was both gross and really sweet.Convo with Icy Pop:Me: Do you think the "rock maze" will actually be a maze??? (visions of John B's maze from S Town in my head)Icy Pop: Probably not. Probably will be terrible.Me: . . . (remembering last year, when I figured out things with cool names are trying to disguise how awful they are)Actually, the rock mazes (there were two) today were fun. Only one part was steep enough that I had to put down my poles to pull myself up. They weren't "mazes," but you could tell someone thought it would be fun to lead hikers through the rocks. All the scrambling reminded me of the young rock climbers I know back in LA, and how much fun they'd have here! (shout out to Chance and Naomi!)Anyway, here was the rough plan for the day, and what happened. Two years ago, one of my students at UCLA invited me to stay with her family, the Pipers, who live right off the trail. It took me this long to get there! So I was planning to get there by the weekend. But then I did more miles yesterday, and the next shelter was just 10 miles - I hit it early afternoon, too soon to stop. There was a campground coming up, and the stop for the Pipers, which was even further. Surely I couldn't hit 20 on my 4th day back.But the maps showed the last 8 miles to the Pipers were soooo flat....and it was going to rain. And with the weird spacing between shelters, and no camping allowed between them, it would be perfect...Still, over 20 in the first week. I decided to play it by ear, see how I felt when I reached the campground. The flat hike was too tempting. Off I went!I forgot from last year - weird flat lines on the map mean walking through fields and pastures. After all the green forest, it's such a shock to see gold fields and blue skies!I took so many great photos. The "Jesus light" hit just as I emerged, and I took tons of shots with it.And to entertain myself during the last two hours of walking...I concocted this:(to be sung to "The Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel)Hello frankenlegs, my friendIt's nice to walk with you againAlong the trail I'm slowly creepingFighting bugs even while sleepingAnd the vision that was planted in my brainStill remainsWalking all the way to MaineFor restless days I walked aloneUp this Pennsylvania stoneBeneath a halo of mosquitoes I turned my face to a few SOBOsWhen my eyes were stabbed by the flash of someone's headlamp(and I'm still damp)Echoes the sound of hiking poles.------I should probably keep my day job.-----Thoughts while waiting for the ramen to cook: if it feels like something is crawling on you, it is.(this was creepily prescient in hindsight, as once I showered at the Pipers I found my first deer tick. It was DISGUSTING. I will spare you the photo I took of it through a magnifying glass)The Pipers are amazing. I am so delighted to have met them, had dinner with them, had lovely conversations. It is all worth whatever pain comes my way tomorrow, when my feet get me back for breaking the "low mileage" rule.More to come!P.S. Seriously, I won't get Lyme disease (at least from today) It wasn't really attached, wasn't filled with blood. It was sooo tiny. I originally thought it was a scab. I wasn't sure until the magnifying glass. See, this is why I needed to hike for 20 miles to take a shower to tick-check!P.P.S. Also saw a copperhead snake.