7-7-12

AT miles hiked today: 20.1
Other miles hiked today: .5
Total AT miles hiked: 689.5

We started at Upper Goose Pond Cabin and hiked .5 miles to get back to the trail so today we hiked 20.6 miles with our full packs. That is a record for all of us. We weighed our packs before we left and I found out mine weighs 27 pounds without food and water and my food bag weighs 8 pounds. That is 39 pounds with 2 liters of water! Every time I get my pack lighter it feels better to carry it, and I add something else to it, because it feels okay. Then I get it back up to 40 pounds again, which is just too heavy. The silly thing is I have all this food and we hiked to a house that fed us for free and took us to the store so I barely used any of my own food today. It makes me feel slightly better that we are all in the same range with our pack weight, and actually, since I weigh more, I should be able to carry more pack weight as a percentage of my body weight. Still, it's too heavy! Again.

We stopped at the Cookie lady's place and she brought us yummy chocolate chip cookies she had made herself. She also sold us cold cans of soda for a dollar, an ice cream bar for $1.50, and boiled fresh farm eggs for a quarter each. That was a great snack, and we met back up with Whoop and Resource, and Magpie there. That made seven women hikers all taking a break there at once and that made the Cookie Lady happy because she had not seen many women thruhikers this year and we all came at once. Somebody took a picture of us with her. I hope I get a copy.

I fell on my face when I tripped on a root. Actually, I managed to keep my face out of the dirt and not crush my camera. This was the first time I've fallen while hiking and I was okay, though the right side of my body took the impact and was sore later. I fell again stepping on a rock and slid on my butt. I sat there and cried out of exhaustion and self pity. I was so tired.

We had seen comments in registers about the Birdcage in Dalton and so we called the number. Rob said he'd come get us and we all finally made it off the mountain at 8:30pm. He took us to the house and gave us free showers, did our laundry for us, gave us cold soda, salad and burgers and hot dogs to cook up, leftover from July 4th. Then we slept upstairs above his garage. What an awesome guy. He has been helping hikers for 12 years and this is his last year. I'm so lucky to have met him. What a nice guy.