Free pizza to fill the empty bellies too. Compared to some of the others, this is four star deluxe accommodations. Here are a few pictures of the shelter:
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Food drop going out to Delaware Water Gap
Quick shout from Sculler finds them at the Eckville Shelter 1224.2 NoBo. They had one more day of slackpacking yesterday. They slacked into Port Clinton and had dinner courtesy of Schubert Family Trail Angels.
Free pizza to fill the empty bellies too. Compared to some of the others, this is four star deluxe accommodations. Here are a few pictures of the shelter:
There are Enclosed bunkrooms, tent platforms
A flush toilet, and water spigot at the side of the caretakers house.
Nice digs. Next food drop is going into the mail tomorrow and is headed to Delaware Water Gap. That is around 1280 NoBo. 10 days of food and some treats for Tripwire and a few select nice goodies for Hollywood to enjoy.
Free pizza to fill the empty bellies too. Compared to some of the others, this is four star deluxe accommodations. Here are a few pictures of the shelter:
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Back on the trail. Goobye base camp and slack packing. New England here we come.
Sculler shot off a location report from the trail. They are back on in full pack mode. Today was 17 miles. From Swatara Gap to the Hertline Campsite 1190.9 NoBo. If you look at the map link on the right you can see that they had a pretty long stretch of woodland to hike in today. This is the first day they have had to return to full pack weight.
The Waterville Iron Bridge across Swatara Creek: I love the detailed work at the top.
A picture of the boulder field just before Hertlein Campsite: Yes, I did say Boulder Field.
The campsite has an old Dam at it and a nice frigid pond back up behind it. I couldn't find a picture I could freely post but if you click this link to a Google image search the first two pictures show you the pond and the cool rope swing. Looks like a perfect place to set up camp. This is only a small piece of the 100 mile stretch of ankle twisting, shoe eating trail that runs through Pennsylvania. They don't get much of a respite from the rocky trail until Delaware Water Gap 1285 NoBo.
New milestone. They now have less than 1000 miles to go to reach Katahdin.
A picture of the boulder field just before Hertlein Campsite: Yes, I did say Boulder Field.
The campsite has an old Dam at it and a nice frigid pond back up behind it. I couldn't find a picture I could freely post but if you click this link to a Google image search the first two pictures show you the pond and the cool rope swing. Looks like a perfect place to set up camp. This is only a small piece of the 100 mile stretch of ankle twisting, shoe eating trail that runs through Pennsylvania. They don't get much of a respite from the rocky trail until Delaware Water Gap 1285 NoBo.
New milestone. They now have less than 1000 miles to go to reach Katahdin.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
One more day slackpacking. Holy 26 miles batman!
They got back on the trail today and took down 26 miles of Pennsylvania rocky trails. The relatively flat terrain and weight reduction is making them light as feathers and swift as eagles.
You've heard a lot about them, and now you can place faces to the names.
On the left is Sculler and on the right, in the ever fashionable sombrero is Sno.
Here they are on the road to Duncannon, Pa. 1138.5 NoBo. They found a brief respite from the sun hanging out under a bridge.
This puts them close to a quarter of the way through Pennsylvania. These days they have been able to slackpack have meant lots of miles of trail burned up. The distance they put on today was through relatively urban terrain. The trail dives straight back into the woods for the next 40+ miles. Rejoined as a team they are slicing through Pennsylvania like a knife through butter.
On the left is Sculler and on the right, in the ever fashionable sombrero is Sno.
This puts them close to a quarter of the way through Pennsylvania. These days they have been able to slackpack have meant lots of miles of trail burned up. The distance they put on today was through relatively urban terrain. The trail dives straight back into the woods for the next 40+ miles. Rejoined as a team they are slicing through Pennsylvania like a knife through butter.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
A fail on the Half Gallon Challenge. Slackpacking is the best
Sno, Coconut, Hollywood, and Jordan slack packed 22 miles into Pine Grove Furnace State Park 1093.4 NoBo yesterday. Above is the general location they are at on the map.A little info from the Wiki: Pine Grove Furnace State Park is a protected Pennsylvania area that includes Laurel and Fuller lakes in Cooke Township. The park provides various outdoor recreation activities, has the remains of the Pine Grove Iron Works, and was the site of the 1830 Laurel Forge, 1880s Pine Grove Park, and an 1892 brick plant.
They took on the Half Gallon Challenge at the Pine Grove Furnace Store and failed miserably. As if walking 2,175 miles, mostly over rugged mountain terrain, is not challenging enough, through hikers on the Appalachian Trail face another daunting test when they reach Pine Grove Furnace State Park.
The unofficial halfway point of the Georgia-to-Maine trek is the front porch of the park's general store. There, hikers traditionally celebrate by consuming a half-gallon of ice cream, a feat known as the "half-gallon challenge." Our heros were not up to the task. Their spirits were into the idea, but bellies were full way too fast and none were able to eat the entire half gallon of ice cream.
The half way point is officially behind them. They went through it at 1090.5 NoBo. There are often hiker created temporary monuments celebrating it. But since every year the mid-way point changes a little as trails open and close and section mileages are adjusted accordingly, the true half-way point is an ever moving target. They are using Sno's place as a base camp to allow them these past few days of slackpacking. Coconut is at a hotel with her bo and the entire troop will take a zero tomorrow. Sno and Hollywood will keep the pool at the hotel safe from ruffians by diligently sitting by the pool sitting in deck chairs and soaking in the awesomeness of a day off the trail.
They slacked another 20 miles today and will get back on the trail at Boiling Springs, Pa 1113.0 NoBo.
After their zero tomorrow it will be back to the grind for all of them, full packs and all. Pennsylvania and New York to go, and they will touch their feet on New England soil.
Melissa has discovered that it isn't the shoes, socks, or even the mileage that is killing her feet. It is the weight of her backpack. While they have been slackpacking, she has had almost no feet issues despite putting on a 23 and a 20 back to back. Her end of day has gone from agony to mild irritation. Be that as it may, the 40 pound life sustaining bundle is on her back again Tuesday. This next week or so should be pretty smooth on them as far as elevation goes. But the Pa. stretch is called 'Where Boots go to Die and the maintenance crew sharpens the rocks.' What it lacks in elevation it makes up for in the ruggedness of the trails.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
A call from a random point on the trail. Hello Maryland.
The crew slackpacked 12 miles yesterday thanks to a Schubert Magic Angel. She met them at lunch, they raged on diner food, and with weight off and bellies full, they hiked into Harpers Ferry, Va. Today the crew didn’t get out of the Harpers Ferry area until after 4:30 this afternoon. They did a mere 8 mile nero to land up about a mile short of the Ed Garvey Shelter 1021.3 NoBo. They have broken through the 1000 mile mark and should have the first half of the entire A.T. done by Tuesday. They are at a random Campground .2 miles off the trail.
They got started so late because they wanted to spend the day at The Appalachian Trail Conservancy. This is home base for the whole ATC support team. I strongly encourage you to spend some time at their website. It tells the tail of why the AT is so much more than a path from Georgia to Maine. If you are planning on trying the AT, or even a section of it, it's one of the greatest resources for information.
From the ATC website: Who We Are: The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), established in 1925, is a national not-for-profit corporation that is both a confederation of the 31 local organizations with assignments to maintain the Appalachian Trail and a membership organization with support from all 50 states and more than 15 other countries.
When you show up and sign in as a thru hiker, they give you a number and take your picture to put in the Yearbook. Hollywood is 440. Coconut is 443. Frodo has been joining them on and off throughout the trail as their hiking schedules coordinate. He and Sno are 441 and 442. When you complete the trail, you can fill out a ‘2000-miler’ application and they will send you a certificate, a patch and you get listed in the May/June issue of AT Journeys; an ATC member’s magazine. Sculler left the trail at Harpers Ferry for family responsibilities. But since they took a nero today and will be taking a zero at Sno’s home town, she may still catch back up. There are so many names of the people that drift in and out of their hiking days that it would take pages to name them and tell the stories. Be sure to pick their brains on their return and you’ll find so many nuggets of awesome tales.
Sno and Frodo are 2011 thru-hikers. Sculler has been section hiking the trail for a few years now because of work. She is an instructor and only gets the late spring / early summer period off work before going back to her coaching duties. The team has been trying to get her to extent that time as long as possible because they all gel so well together.
If all goes as expected they will be in Boiling Springs Pa. 1107.6 NoBo on the 19th. They will zero out on the 20th. Hollywood will hang out with Sno in his home town and Coconut will have a well deserved visit with her Bo.
Melissa related that Harpers Ferry is similar to Portsmouth, NH and Salem, MA. Among the attractions in this history filled and proud town are ghost tours, and historically accurate people walking around acting out what life was like in the 18th and 19th centuries. Hollywood appreciated it a little more than the others because she comes from a city that has these same types of attractions in it. They arrived at Harpers Ferry last night around 8PM.
Hollywood replaced her Thermarest in Buena Vista so has been back on a nice comfortable bed for a while now. The old one couldn’t be repaired and was sent home. Sno and Hollywood have picked up radios. Spent all the time getting the pack weight down so they picked up a radio in Front Royal. Now their days are spent having dance parties up the trail. Spirits are running very high. They went to flea market in Front Royal and Sno picked up a sombrero. He looks very interesting hiking up the trail wearing a sombrero and a radio around his neck. Sculler is another gazelle and she was hiking with Coconut while they were all together. Sno and Hollywood keep a slower pace. Nonetheless, they always put on the same number of miles at the end of a day.
Sno is feeding J-Dog a lot now and the other night he got a double meal. Melissa fed him and Sno did a while later. Bonus for the four legged team member.
As I finished my call with her, they had completed setting up camp and were getting ready for dinner. They are in Maryland now. Out of the Virginia’s completely. West Virginia was only 6 miles before they dipped back into Virginia and, finally, across the border into Maryland. Maryland will be another short state before they hit Pennsylvania.
Congratulations on breaking the 1000 mile and Virginia borders. Half done…. Hard to imagine considering this all started on April 1st.
The passage of the Patowmac through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in Nature.
... This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic ...
Thomas Jefferson
The passage of the Patowmac through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in Nature.
... This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic ...
Thomas Jefferson
Monday, June 13, 2011
Goodbye Virginia, you will not be missed
Tonight finds our adventurers at Bear's Den Hostel . 994.5 NoBo. The Stone lodge is ATC owned.Laundry, Showers, Lounge, Internet access. It looks like a great place to stay on the trail. I mean they have Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream available. What more can you want while in the woods? They hiked 13 miles today. A roller coaster day going up and down hills 10 times. Tomorrow they will say goodbye to Virginia and Hello to the 1000 mile mark. Sunday, after an awesome zero day, they headed back onto the trail amid thunderstorms. They have put another 22 miles behind them as of today.
Here is her FB post:
Sculler is the latest recruit. The whole team is now called 'Sno's Nuts and the Big Montana's'. That and 'Charlie and his Angels'. Depending on who you ask and who gets to answer first. It refers to Sno, the lone guy in the group other than our Canine pal Jordan, who has been keeping company with the girls, Hollywood, Coconut, and Sculler.
Sno caught up with them a while ago and Sculler has been with them through the past four towns since Waynesboro, Va. They will be heading into Pa and Sno's neck of the woods soon.
So goodbye Virginia, you are not flat, and you are very long, but the crew didn't get too much of the blues because of team comradeship.
Here are a few pictures of what they saw as they sat atop Bears Den Rocks.
A nice postcard of a moonlight painting of this beautiful area.
The more we see, the more we want to try it too.
Here is her FB post:
Sculler is the latest recruit. The whole team is now called 'Sno's Nuts and the Big Montana's'. That and 'Charlie and his Angels'. Depending on who you ask and who gets to answer first. It refers to Sno, the lone guy in the group other than our Canine pal Jordan, who has been keeping company with the girls, Hollywood, Coconut, and Sculler.
Sno caught up with them a while ago and Sculler has been with them through the past four towns since Waynesboro, Va. They will be heading into Pa and Sno's neck of the woods soon.
Here are a few pictures of what they saw as they sat atop Bears Den Rocks.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Tracking Tripwire and Hollywood up the map
At Melissa's former workplace they are tracking the progression as they all head up the trail. Doreen, one of the people where she worked, kindly sent me a couple pictures of the map they have put up to track Jordan and Melissa's progress. Here is the map in its entirety as it sits on the wall. 
I love the marker they made of our intrepid heroes. Here it is in closeup. How awesome is that? I've asked Doreen to keep sending me pictures as they move up the trail. I like to add as much depth to their experience as I can since this will be a kind of journal for them to peruse once the trail is through and they are sharing all the memories.
If you have some interesting pictures, or stories you think would be nice to add, feel free to email me at blogstuff@budgreen.net .
They did 26 miles yesterday!! They pulled off the Shenandoah's, all 106 miles of it, in five days. Today is a zero day in Front Royal, Va where the Blue Ridge Mountains meet the Shenandoah river. A well earned day off to get out of the heat and rest their feet.
Thursday, June 09, 2011
900 + down.
They are over the 900 mile NoBo mark. Here is her post from Facebook:
What more can be said. They are having the time of their lives. Here is a link to the Big Meadows Lodge. After so many days of drudgery and misery, you can feel their spirits lifting as they head toward the state border.
Tailwind, thank you so much for the Hawksbill mention. I found a nice panoramio website that has a huge picture of the Skyland and Stony Man from Hawksbill Summit . The next food drop is ten days going to Summerdale, PA. That will be around 1200 NoBo. They walk right on the Virginia / West Virginia border for 19 miles and then pop out in Maryland. Check out this map that shows the trail riding the border.
And thank you John for Team Cocowood. I like it.
What more can be said. They are having the time of their lives. Here is a link to the Big Meadows Lodge. After so many days of drudgery and misery, you can feel their spirits lifting as they head toward the state border.
Tailwind, thank you so much for the Hawksbill mention. I found a nice panoramio website that has a huge picture of the Skyland and Stony Man from Hawksbill Summit . The next food drop is ten days going to Summerdale, PA. That will be around 1200 NoBo. They walk right on the Virginia / West Virginia border for 19 miles and then pop out in Maryland. Check out this map that shows the trail riding the border.
And thank you John for Team Cocowood. I like it.
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Into the Shenandoah
Our crew spent Sunday in Waynseboro, Va 848.4 NoBo. It was a short day into town but the day was so oppressive, they decided an overnight in air conditioned comfort was essential. They are currently hiking through the Shenandoah National Park. The park is celebrating its 75th anniversary. Less than 150 miles to go and they will be out of Virginia. While hiking on the park, Jordan is going to have to be on leash. A bit of a change for Tripwire. I'm sure his trail name will prove true many many times since he has to remain tethered to Hollywood.
I haven't heard from Melissa since before they hit Waynesboro. They spent their day off reconnecting with their friends on Facebook and calling home. I speak to her more regularly than anyone but her husband and it's is understandable to want contact everyone else. Plus, my talks are more like interviews than two way conversations. While in Waynesboro, they ate at the New Ming Garden Chinese Buffet. It is an AYCE (All You Can Eat) restaurant so, as you've read in previous posts, they loved it. Any chance to eat as much as you can when you easily burn up 3000 calories in a day of hiking is appreciated.
Air conditioning is a luxury item and when they stay in town they have been opting for a nice cool day inside with the AC as opposed to hanging out at the pool. They have had many days of the triple H's Hazy, hot, and humid. Ninety plus degree days and humidity close to 100%. Tomorrow will be another day in the oven.
After a weekend hike with Pete's hiking partner and kids and Sunday afternoon off, Monday morning they likely dove back into the woods and on the trial. They can practically see the border of West Virginia. As soon as I get the fill in phone call, I will update the past days with additional details.
I haven't heard from Melissa since before they hit Waynesboro. They spent their day off reconnecting with their friends on Facebook and calling home. I speak to her more regularly than anyone but her husband and it's is understandable to want contact everyone else. Plus, my talks are more like interviews than two way conversations. While in Waynesboro, they ate at the New Ming Garden Chinese Buffet. It is an AYCE (All You Can Eat) restaurant so, as you've read in previous posts, they loved it. Any chance to eat as much as you can when you easily burn up 3000 calories in a day of hiking is appreciated.
Air conditioning is a luxury item and when they stay in town they have been opting for a nice cool day inside with the AC as opposed to hanging out at the pool. They have had many days of the triple H's Hazy, hot, and humid. Ninety plus degree days and humidity close to 100%. Tomorrow will be another day in the oven.
After a weekend hike with Pete's hiking partner and kids and Sunday afternoon off, Monday morning they likely dove back into the woods and on the trial. They can practically see the border of West Virginia. As soon as I get the fill in phone call, I will update the past days with additional details.
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Coconuts New Doo
I haven't given you many Christina stories because she is the rock solid Energizer Bunny. She just keeps going and going and going. I asked for a couple updates on how the Appalachian Trail is treating her.
Sno calls her Gazelle because of how she hikes with a very fast constant speed and prances with grace like a Gazelle. She has also made the equipment check, gear drop thing. Took a couple pounds off and sent them home. Her pack was already two pounds heavier than Hollywood's empty. She is down to sleeping with just a fleece cover so not needing a sleeping bag saves on weight. On a hike when every ounce counts, dropping a few pounds puts a whole new spring in your step. She has been nursing a sore shoulder but it isn't affecting her bad enough to alter the pace.
She has 'Ripped the book'. Both Melissa and Christina have The A. T. Guide; the same book I have been giving you much of the trail info about. Tearing sections out and mailing them back home is a big thing for hikers. As they go along the trail the guide starts to fill with hand written notes about the places and experiences. It is such a wealth of information. Above is a sample page oriented sideways:If you look behind the words you can see how the elevation is also illustrated to you. It's a pretty ingenious tome.
The guide contains enough space to add notes and musings while on the trail. You're Breaking the Seal when you takes pages out of the book and send those memories home. Melissa hasn't ripped hers yet. They offer the A.T. Guide in a loose-leaf format for just this reason. So Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee are on their way home.
She has had a fully embedded tick in her. It's out now. Thankfully, the big ticks don't carry Lyme. It's the tiny Deer Tick that carries that miserable bacteria. Melissa has had a couple of them attached, but so far, she is OK. They already know someone who is hiking with Lyme Disease right now. He contracted it within the past couple weeks and was diagnosed only days ago. Yet, even with Lyme, onward the ramblers keep going. Another hiker that believes that despite every ache, pain, sprain, twist, bite, cut, scratch, allergy, cold, fever, disease, or infection; NOTHING keeps a thru hiker from completing their task of sitting on top of the mountain at the end of the trail.
Jordan has a tick collar on now. Melissa picked up a generic one while waiting for the prescription one in the next drop. He isn't staying outside the tent completely every night. Melissa has just banished him to the vestibule. Now when it comes time to put him in the vestibule, he thinks he is allowed all the way in and it becomes a struggle to keep him out of the inner part. Sometimes the fight is too much at the end of a long day, and he just has to sleep outside the tent. For those of you unaware, a typical modern tent has a vestibule area that is kind of like a tent mud room. It is a place to put your stuff you don't want to sleep with, yet still want to keep dry and inside the tent with you.
DEET is now in use. Melissa has been anti-DEET the whole trip, but has given in to it in hopes of preventing the bites and any more ticks. She is one big mosquito bite from head to toe. She has to admit, DEET does work. Personally, I swear by it. 40% DEET keeps the bugs off. No bugs = no bites. No bites = no diseases from said skeeters and ticks. Mosquito and Tick-borne maladies are nothing to play around with. For a day trip, you can get away with something else. But when you're trekking 2200 miles through bug infested woods, you take a different look on chemical warfare.
Today was low humidity, and a beautiful day. A nice breeze has accompanied them so, despite having over 3000 ft of elevation gain in under one mile to do today, it was no problem. Once on top of Bald Knob, it was thirteen miles of relatively even terrain. There are two shelters and three campsites all within a couple miles of each other, so I have no idea where they are setting up camp for the night. She called while taking a break before heading out for the last miles of the day. We had to work out some Tripwire details.
Tailwinds hiking partner is coming out to join the gang tomorrow. He is going to hike with them for the weekend along with his kids. Our newest special guests are about to arrive.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Zero day in Buena Vista, Va.
Melissa called from a hotel they are staying at in Buena Vista 799.1 NoBo for a zero day. It is almost 100% humidity right now and it is too oppressive to hike. Lots of fellow thru hikers have descended on the hotel. This past week has shown little improvement for Hollywood’s feet and ankle. She has gotten an ankle brace and she thinks it is helping. Coconut is holding up perfectly, so far. Jordan has become a tick magnet and has been banned to outside the tent at night for a while.
As you can tell, they have backed off the mileage totals a bit, but they have been doing it by taking Neros and long 20 plus mile days. They have slowly but surely started reconnecting with some of their fellow hikers they lost in Vicksburg at Trail Days. Modifying the mileage has also helped Melissa.
They planned on a 12 mile day after the night off with the friends I told you about in the last post. Before returning to the trail, they went to an outfitter so Melissa could check in on warranty status of her now leaking tent, and deflating mattress. The outfitter called Big Agnes, the maker of the tent, and they just told them to issue her a new one. The outfitter didn’t have her tent model, but one at another outfitter a couple towns away, did. For the Thermarest deflation issue, they gave her a patch kit for free.
So they called on a Trail Angel. Trail Angels are the great people who setup and give away Trail Magic. They often ferry items to and from towns as needed for thru-hikers too. These are true salt of the earth, plain ol good people. The first Trail Angel they called was unable to, so they called a second who was in town. So this random woman she had never met agreed to go into the town that had it, pick up the tent, and meet her on the trail with it.
By the time they get everything dealt with, it is well after 3:00PM. They were both thinking they should just zero the day, but now they have made a commitment to meet the trail angel with the tent plus too obsessed with mileage, but never communicated that to each other. It was too late to patch the mattress there ,so she figured she’d sleep with it one more night deflated and patch it the next.
And back on the trail they head at 3:30 PM. They hike until 7:30 PM and come to a road. Melissa is sure this ISN’T the road she is supposed to meet the trail angel at. Out comes the map and they find it is six more miles to the road. They did only six miles in four hours. They normally average 2.5 miles per hour so this was awfully depressing for Melissa. They call the trail angel and ask her to meet them at the road they are on now. She says OK, it’s closer for her anyway.
They see a friend from the trail while waiting for the tent and he recommends they walk down the road to a convenience store to grab a beer, and the next thing you know its party time. They take the booze up to a campsite and weary hikers imbibe in alcoholic pleasures until the wee hours of the morning. They all decided to stick together and invade a restaurant in the next town up the line. Seven hikers strong, they hike into Catawba, Va. 700.0 NoBo. The restaurant, The Home Place, doesn’t open until 4:00 PM. What else is there to do but hang at another convenience store; by the time all the hikers gathered, there were thirty people descending on The Home Place Once open, the restaurant puts all the hikers in one area and put up a wall for privacy / isolation / quarantine J. This is an all-you-can-eat family style restaurant. Everyone sits around the table and they bring out big containers of endless food for all to eat. Our vegetarian filled up on mashed potatoes, biscuits and cherry cobbler. You know, the healthy stuff. Even the vegetables had been cooked in chicken stock. These two days of low miles, camaraderie and partying restored a lot of Melissa’s cheer. The Virginia blues had started to sink in, but it took just a couple days of fun times and relaxing to push them away again.
Next day they all decide to hike to McAfee Knob 703.5 NoBo, one of the most photographed locations on the AT, to catch the sunset, and then head up the trail a bit to the Campbell Shelter 704.5NoBo. A third short day. They get on the trail and less than a half mile in, Hollywood rolls her ankle the worst she has done so far. Her knee was all scraped up, she is a total mess. Even still, she commits to the next four miles. There are places to stop on the way and at every one, Coconut offers to just camp there, but Hollywood is determined to catch up with the whole group and see McAfee Knob. On they hobble to the Knob and then to the shelter.
There was a nurse staying at the shelter, and she applied the Ace bandage for Melissa. Next day she was pretty solid on her feet and they had a good day of hiking. They got to Daleville, Va. 719.8 NoBo. A decent 15 mile trek. All thirty hikers that had hit the Home Place hit a Mexican restaurant in Daleville and took it over. Next they went on to the Howard Johnson’s and took that over for the night. Backtrack’s food drop was waiting for her there. Overnight at HoJo’s and back on the trail.
This week has been pretty decent so far. She has an ankle brace which seems to help, and there has been an overnight with hardcore downpours and the tent has stayed bone dry. Unfortunately, the patch job on the sleeping pad didn’t work, so that is still an issue. But very minor in the grand scheme. Hollywood got a summer bag so is sleeping better. The horror show week described in the previous post was only leaving Melissa with 2-4 hours of sleep per night. The slower pace and equipment replacement has meant more relaxed nights for potentially better sleeping. The past couple days the temp has gotten over 100 degrees with 90 plus percent humidity so nights have been oppressive and miserable to sleep in. She still isn’t getting a good night’s sleep because of the heat, but what little there has been has been refreshing. To top it off, both have featured 20 plus mile days.
Jordan is a tick magnet. He is easily getting twenty ticks a day. His Frontline is working at killing them when they bite, but that doesn’t keep them off to begin with. I’m sending another 10 days food to . Along with the food will go another Frontline as well as a prescription flea / tick collar. His doggy doctor has prescribed the collar and an increase in his Frontline due to the tick barrage on him. So every night is a toe to head check for ticks and STILL he has to stay outside the tent. This has made his barking worse, but extreme measures need to be taken until some kind of control over the ticks can be made. Even during the hotel stays when she went over him more closely, he inevitably has a tick or two that is missed. Next town nets a comb for Tripwire so he can be gone over, literally, with a fine toothed comb every night.
Ice cream last night and catching up with fellow hiker Sno, who they lost in Damascus, has lifted spirits again. Sno has been trying to catch up and his group has been slower. He rejoined the team at the hotel last night, but his buddies haven’t caught up yet. Just the fact that it is one extra person in the group makes the whole that much stronger and safer.
So the Zero today, sitting in Air Conditioning with 100 plus degree weather outside, kicking back and watching movies, and hanging out with trail friends has been a treat. Tomorrow, it’s back on the trail again. They will hit 800 Miles tomorrow. Hopefully, adding a collar will allow Jordan back into the tent soon. Until next call, take care kids.
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