May 10
End: Eagle's Nest Shelter
Miles: 32.6
Total: 3065.1
Tracker, Salty, Spiral and Swivel all left the shelter before me. I stayed behind to rest a little and try to do the impossible: catch up on my journal. I can hike more than forty miles in a day, but I cannot write a few paragraphs about my day, every day.
I did do some entries, then left. After awhile I came upon Spiral and Swivel taking a break at William Penn Shelter. They said that we were a thousand miles from Mt. Katahdin, the end of the Appalachian Trail. I read an entry from Bomber’s journal in which he mentioned Metro North doing fifty miles at once and he himself did over sixty. Not to be outdone, I suggested we just hike the last thousand miles without stopping. Swivel was up for it but not Spiral. Typical.
Lorax passed by and said hello. He is the only person who I know can consistently do forty miles a day. He had twenty four done before one in the afternoon, but was only going four more miles to the posh 501 shelter, which has a shower.
We moved on through very rocky terrain, and I let my two friends continue while I did another journal entry. I met up with Salty again as he came out of the 501 Shelter, and we hiked together for awhile before he stopped to arrange to be picked up by his wife.
I continued past my friends, and pushed towards our destination shelter. To my surprise, heavy rain pummeled me before I could get there. It had not been forecast and I was not wearing any rain gear. I got drenched just a half mile from the shelter.
Frustrated, I arrived and did my normal dinner and bed routine. Spiral and Swivel showed up wet as well. It was too late to talk at length with the two section hikers at the shelter, so we just went to bed. It had been a good day up until the last half mile.
