Saturday, July 23 - Day 121 - Mile 1418.9 - Shenandoah Tenting Area
Wow! What a great day. Despite reported temperatures around 100 in NYC we were much cooler in the woods, most of the day, thanks to cloud cover. We felt so good we hiked an extra 6 miles to get us closer to our pick-up tomorrow by my Sister-in-Law and Brother-in-Law, Terri & Jon for a NERO.
With the humidity, we won't have been in dry clothes since we began our climb up Bear Mountain so getting dry & clean, even for a few hours, feels so good. We look forward to cooler weather in a few weeks as we finish Vermont and head onto New Hampshire. Tonight we can only imagine. At one point today it did climb to 91 in the woods. The humidity must be about 110%.
Spoke to Jane's Brother Jerry and Sister-in-Law Jan tonight. They would like to join us old guys for a short hike in MA, VT or NH. That will be a lot of fun. (So many folks have said they would like to hike with us but for some reason never show up).
We had a restful night last night at the Graymoor Spiritual Center. We were up early with the bells sounding from the Monastery at 5 AM and on the trail by 6:00.
Only a couple of miles into our hike today, on a mountain top, we ran into our first trail magic of the day. A huge cooler filled with ice cold drinks of all types. We couldn't figure out how it was delivered since there were no roads even remotely close. We had our first break, of many today, and enjoyed our drinks. Nice way to start. Later on in the day, once we were committed to hike an extra 6 miles, we found the terrain to be much more challenging then the profiles in the guide led us to believe. We were pretty beat at the end of 17+miles but were rewarded with a beautiful spot to camp on a old orchard with water available. We're the only ones here so it will be a very quiet night.
I don't know why we keep believing the terrain profiles in the AT guide. They never indicate steep sheer rock walls or roller coster sections. We know they didn't appear after publication. At least a dozen times a day someone comments "Who put this here and why?", as we huff & puff.
With that I'll say goodnight with visions of a hot shower dancing in my head.
Love, peace, joy & hope,
Trolley Stop
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