Thursday, 6/11

AT Miles = 18.3 / 993.1
Other Miles = 0.8 / 36.8
Total Miles = 19.1 / 1028.9

It rained like the dickens last night. I was comfy and dry in my
hammock, but there were a few minutes when I thought the tarp might
take off in the wind. That would have been bad!

The humidity today was oppressive; the air being totally saturated and
not a breath of air moving. Hiking is hot work and my body was
sweating to try to cool down, but the sweat could not evaporate so my
clothes were soon soaked through, and I even had rivulets of sweat
running down my legs into my socks and boots.

The tendinitis in my left ankle is better — not better as in it’s all
healed, hallelujah, but better in the sense of less bad than it was
yesterday. The ibuprofen seems to be working, so I will keep that up
for a couple more days and hopefully I will have no more trouble.

I am staying at the Bears Den Hostel, which is owned by the ATC and
operated by the PATC. It’s a really nice place. They offer a package
that includes a bunk with linens, a shower, laundry, a pizza, a soda,
and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, for $25. Sold! Unlike some
hiker hostels, this place is spotlessly clean. And the laundry is a
blessing. It is so humid and wet outside that I could not wash my
socks, since they would never dry. Now I’ve washed and dried my dirty
socks, along with all my other dirty stuff. Clean, dry socks go a long
ways towards making a comfortable hike.

I am only about 20 miles from Harpers Ferry so I could make it there
tomorrow if tried hard, but I am not planning to stay in Harpers
Ferry. Jodi sent a food drop to the ATC headquarters in Harpers Ferry,
and my plan is to stop there, get my picture taken and put in their
book of thru-hikers, pick up my food drop, then push on to the next
shelter. All that will work better if I get there earlier in the day,
so I will stop south of the town tomorrow night, then go into town
Saturday morning. Also, the weather is supposed to be much drier on
Saturday so it will be more conducive to spending a bit of time in
town amongst civilized people, before pushing on back into the woods.

—
~~~~~
Monkeywrench
Allen F. Freeman
allen@allenf.com
www.allenf.com
allenf.blogspot.com