10-1-12

AT miles hiked today: .7
Total AT miles hiked: 1520
Miles to complete my thruhike: 664.9

I'm in the George W. Outerbridge Shelter tonight. This morning I slept in as Eagle Eye got a ride with a wonderful trail angel named Jerry into Allentown to get her teeth fixed. He drove her to two different clinics and the second one got her right in even without an appointment, treated her like a celebrity, fixed both of her broken teeth and gave her a huge discount because a trail angel lent her the money and put it right on his credit card. Then Jerry took her to lunch for some soft food and drove us both to the other side of town where we got back on the trail.

The bee stings on the back of my thigh have turned purple and swollen across the entire back of my upper leg. They got worse when I hiked because my shorts aggravated the area. So between her numb, newly drilled mouth and my bee stings and our late start hiking, we chose not to go back up the steep blue blazed trail just to come down a rocky cliff that brings us to the same place at the bottom. I feel a little guilty about this blue blaze, but physically/medically both of us had issues hampering us. We stopped just out of town at the very first shelter. At least we got out of the town vortex. We met 3/4s who gave me Benedryl and built us a great fire. We also met Willie and another local guy who hung out and chatted by the fire until dark.