ElizabethClose

July 10- 12:30am somebody came into our hostel. Clomping boots-dropping pack- and muttering to himself. His red headlamp light in my eyes woke me more. The wretched guy left the bunkroom I was in and wandered to the other one clomp clomp clomp. I decided he was confused and got up to see if I could help him before he woke up everybody. Turns out it was cotton! He said hey baby and gave me a hug that I scraped off and told him he was being really noisy. He said "I paid my money. But for you I'll shower in the morning'. I said do what you want just take off your dang boots. Gah some people! I went back to sleep until 5- got up and left quietly as I had packed my gear the night before. I saw a doe and fawn cross high street and go up between houses. Neat! Made it to the south mountain park/ museum around noon and poked around a little. Trail magic at the pavilion. Coke and fruit and ice cream. So great on a hot day!! Sat for an hour chatting and headed out. Rocky spots got my shin aching so I stopped at shelter and made dinner with ibuprofen for appetizer - yummy. Another hour wasted so I only made it another mile before settling for a nice stealth site. I DO love hammocking!! 16 miles

July 11. Woke at 5 but felt like being lazy so I rolled over and slept until 6:30. I was out by 7:15. Ate as I went. Got to route 70 and called REI to order new boots. Call kept dropping so it took almost an hour. Stopped for snack in parks and filled my 16oz with water so didn't realize how low my bladder was until after lunch when I tried to wash out my pot. Luckily I was only half mile from next stream. But hot as its been that could have been really bad! Another trip high point today... Got caught literally with my pants down. . . By a family of 4... . good grief! Toward 6pm I came to about 15 hikers sitting around drinking cokes and beer. Somebody left us trail magic- woohoo. I put a coke in my pack for morning and had two beers and headed out again. Beer. So refreshing!! So DE-motivating!! It was all I could do to pass up the shelter .2 farther up. It was only 6:45 and I knew I had two hours of daylight left so on I went. Found a nice site at 8pm and checked Dark Sky (weather app) - 0% rain until tomorrow so I didn't hang the rain fly. 16.8 miles

July 12-up and out by 6:15. Figured I'd eat a candy bar and coke for breakfast. Bad idea. Upset my stomach. Played leapfrog with frosty all day. Several rock climbs over avalanche of boulders where blazes disappeared. When we were a mile away from PenMar park I ordered pizza from a phone number somebody left in comments on guthook. Kinda useful! Pizza was a fabulous treat and leftovers were gratefully wolfed down by coyote and 2pack. Mason Dixon line was quarter mile further. Psyched to be in PA!! I got in touch with friend roger about shuttling me to boiling springs so I can skip the miles I already hiked while doing equipment check In march. Supposed to be Tstorms after midnight so I took care to set up rainfly. Almost all done when I noticed a thigh-thick dead pine was leaning against one of my trees. Gah! I didn't look very well when I first set up. There were 4 dead trees around my two in addition to the broken off leaner. Not a good situation. Especially with storms coming in. Packed up and moved to a safer location where no dead trees or overhanging limbs. It was past sunset when I finally got to bed. As I wrote this entry I heard somebody hiking up trail. I dislike night hiking but some people enjoy it. 16.9 miles

July 13- up and out by 6:30. No rain last night yippee!! Several big rocky ridges with poor blazing and felt like I was crawling. About noon I got to Caledonia state park and paid the $5 to access the pool talking to the snack bar lady I found out hikers got one free refill on sodas and she offered to fill my camelbak with ice when I left woohoo!! Spent 2 hours there soaking and calling people and generally relaxing. Back on trail by 2 pm There were a couple steep spots but the majority was flat forest roads so miles were easy. I pulled into a shelter area around 7:45 and was surprised to see I did 19 miles!

July 14-today is day 90. I slept until5:30 but was Up and out by 7. Reached the halfway sign at mile 1094.55 around 8:30. Kinda anticlimactic. I think the 1000 mile mark was more emotional for me. Stopped for snack at a road crossing and a couple truck pulled up and a bunch of young men started piling out. I asked and was told they were navy. Going to run trail south. I said " yeah that's the easy way- GO Navy! " in a joking way. Then I hoisted my 45 lb pack onto my back and as I buckled I said " what's this? Where's your packs?" One kid pointed to a gym monkeys camelbak and I said" oooh! I bet he's got his big boy pants on and everything!!" I was just being a smart aleck and every body 'whoa' and laughed except mr musclehead. I headed north and left them to their nice hot run. Made pine grove furnace before noon and got the hiker burger and a couple cokes. Wrong way was there with a group I didn't know. and rabbit - tuneup and two other guys were eating and sorting rabbits food drop at another table. One guy was finishing his half gallon challenge- celebration of halfway mark - and went to get his wooden spoon. Apparently it's just a flat wood one with a printed stamp on it. Lame. Not worth the nausea IMHO. Twinkletoes came and did his half-gallon challenge while locals asked us questions. It was very pleasant. I went over to the mansion to see if I could check in but they were closed until Friday. They had my boots and stuff but I left the laptop and food drop rather than haul that weight around. Good choice as the lake was half mile north and the campground was a mile south. The boots were not exactly dreamy comfortable but I'm hopeful the extra stiffness will pay off on the rocky trail over the next month. Spent a couple hours sitting in the lake then showered and walked over to the campground. Met Jeannie and Greg Townsend at next campsite. Greg through hiked in 95 and we had nice conversation about our adventures. They came over and checked out my hammock. Then I ate and was horizontal by 8. Only 10 miles today.

July 15- slept until 6:30!! Unheard of! Caught a ride to the general store with Jeannie and Greg at 8 and sat there visiting for a while. Pyro came hiking up and was waiting for a shuttle into boiling springs so I grabbed my food and laptop boxes from the mansion and split the shuttle with him. Got dropped off at the ATC office and went to the outfitter next door for new pants. Post office right across the street so I'll bounce my laptop home and be ready for the next two weeks!! Woohoo!!