Date: 2014-05-14
From: Tom Floyd Shelter

To: Rod Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 26.5
Weather: broken clouds

Looks like I'm alone again. Honestly I kind of prefer to hike alone about half the time. So many thoughts to attend to, but hiking and talking with someone can make the time whiz by. Shybear is off to hiker days in Damascus and Mariposa is a day or so ahead. Just decided I'd walk and see where I get. What an odd day. After all that rain it was very foggy and stayed that way pretty much all day. So atmospheric and spooky. Now that I'm out of the Shenandoah I'm finally permanently in low elevations until Massachusetts, so the trees are very tall and thick and the ground is covered with green green lush growth. Ferns and mayapple, columbine and jack in the pulpit, lady's slipper and violets. Goes on and on. And lots of very wet areas where they've put down makeshift boardwalks to make it easier. And cleaner! When the trail is wet it can be a mess.The next shelter says "excellent" in AWOL. It did not disappoint. It had a big porch out front with a wide Adirondack bench and a solar shower off to the side. What a treat! A picnic table is usually all you get. The shower was cold so I opted to stay dirty. Plus got a good hiker shower in the rain yesterday. Oh- I've been wanting to get some running shorts to hike in for a while. You find when it gets warm you really want as light and short as possible. Because my hike pants were wet I hung them off my pack with my socks and underwear and threw on my swim trunks. What a difference! Hiking in them from now on. But, it's so wet out and foggy nothing is drying and everything stinks horribly. Kept hiking. Got turned around at the next intersection. Sometimes you just have it in your head where you're going and ignore the signs. Odd - went at least a half mile up a horse path until I realized I hadn't seen a blaze in a while so turned around. But it's such a good hiking day I didn't get too worked up. Although you can't see more than 100 feet and everything is damp, the overcast foggy weather keeps it cool and you can just keep on trucking. Plan was to get to the next shelter and stop but when I got to the blue blaze and realized it was .2m off trail I decided I felt too good to quit. Parked it on a big boulder and decided to eat a good meal -cooked up some mashed potatoes and had some chocolate. Suited up and headed on. Next shelter is eight miles more and it was only three so I was making record time. I've moved up to the three miles an hour club. I could get there in plenty of time AND make this my longest day yet - 26.5 miles. Over a marathon! I've run six of those and am so surprised that I can do almost that distance day after day but when I run it, the next day I'm wrecked. Awesome. I'm a bad ass! . Anyway just hiked and hiked. Great areas -through the forest and out into pastures. Then entered Sky Meadows state park. This would have been gorgeous if I could see anything but still with the fog. Came across a sign with mileage to Harpers Ferry. Think I shed a tear! Mentally I've been really ready to start the second half but know I'm not there. Just kind of waiting but with the sign it's finally in grasp! It's not the official half way - that's in Pennsylvania - but it is ceremonial and where you check in with the conservancy and get your number and all that. Must keep hiking. A few more miles to go and I can relax for the day. Figure I'm all alone again which I'm not too excited about. The fog finally clears a little about six pm but it's still overcast. Forgo the blue blaze for the shelter and could hear voices. Yay! I wonder who's there? You get to shelters during the day and grab the log book. You can see who has been there and when. I've seen names for weeks that I've never met as they've always been ahead and as we all hike at different paces you can catch up to and pass people you've read. Hiked down the trail and wow it's packed! I've been in such a dead area - here's where everyone is! And whoa, I recognize that jacket it's Mariposa! (Hey hey hey! - that's for you Pint Size). How exciting. And amazing I caught up. Having a really good time with her. We've become close enough that we talk about it all. Dirt, poop, farting, whatever. We're in this weird period where because of preexisting plans we think our hiking duo is over but we just keep catching up. Even if we part ways again later hope I see here at Kathadin. She introduced me to Handsome Dan, Goliath, and Radioman. Three of those I've seen signed-in but never met. Tender was also there and a section hiker who was nice but a little annoying. She had the upper loft and had spread out all her stuff to dry and kind of refused to make room. You don't encounter that often so maybe she just had a bad day. We all sat at the picnic table and played spoons. Or in this case sticks. Fun, but as this was my longest day yet it's time for bed. Glad to be amongst people!