10-24-12

Days since m my thruhike began: 189
AT miles hiked today: 13.2
Total AT miles hiked: 1717.8
Miles to complete my thruhike: 466.4

I met Thane and Charlene Farmer with their pack of small dogs during a snack break at a shelter this morning. They are trail angels. They asked if Stonewall, Eagle Eye and I wanted food and offered to bring us barbecue sandwiches, waffle fries, drinks, and snacks to the next road crossing. So we hurried off to hike the two miles to the road and they showed up an hour later, handing bags of food and drinks out the car window. They took our picture eating all the food and they even gave us a bag of Halloween candy. Then they drove away. That was surprising and wonderful. Thank you!

I finally made it out of Pennsylvania! I am in Maryland now. Woo hoo! I got some nice sunset pictures from a view today, knowing it would make me hike longer in the dark, but I was going to anyway, so I enjoyed the sunset.

What was that?!! Did I just get shot? Seriously, the acorns hitting the roof of this, the Raven Rock Shelter, might give me a heart attack. They are described as acorn bombs in the register and I get an intense burst of adrenaline every time an incredibly loud impact happens. That's three that have hit the roof so far. How on earth will I sleep if that keeps happening?

I'm in the upper loft area of the shelter, because I wanted to see the moon through the skylight. The picnic table is out front under the porch roof, which is nice in the rain. If there was a wind screen it would be even better. This is a large and beautiful shelter with a very tall ceiling and a full loft. It seems brand new, extravagant even. I'm upset that somebody left blue gum on the bench and I sat in it and it got all over my hiking pants! Eagle Eye used peanut butter to get the gum out, and it worked! Thank you.

The water is a barely moving trickle a third of a mile down a very steep and rocky hillside, and we all did it in the dark. That was no fun.

I night hiked for nearly an hour to get here and my headlamp needs new batteries, so I couldn't see much, but Stonewall said there is a cat here. He saw it under the table just before it got scared off by an acorn bomb hitting the roof.

Nomad just showed up at 10:30pm! He said he turned off his light and hiked for a while in the moonlight, which lit up the scuffed leaves where we had walked and turned them into a golden trail. He has been chasing us for four days and he brought us mints and chocolate. Thank you!