Day 18 on the Trail

Dave called at 3:30 pm and said he'd been at a shelter for an hour.  He didn't hike as far as he intended, as he was feeling sluggish, and planned to spend the night there.

As of 6/30/11:
Miles today - 10.2
Miles to date - 210.9

To give you a bit of an idea where he is:

The red line is the AT.  The blue arrow points to where Dave is.  It says, "If nobo, we would be here."  Obviously that is someone else's note, not Dave's.  "nobo" means north bound, "sobos" are south bounders.

Re: Dave's sluggishness - Once he stopped, he decided he was dehydrated. Also, he had not made himself a good breakfast, eating only granola bars.  That was a mistake he won't make again.  I asked if he was still boiling water in the morning and letting his dinner rehydrate during the day, and he said no.  When he started on the trail this year, he would be so tired at night he didn't want to have to wait for water to boil, but now that he's in better condition, he's not too tired to make dinner.  He says it takes only about 15 minutes to boil enough water to rehydrate whatever he's having.

He was very happy with the shelter he'll be in tonight.  It has wooden platforms for bunks, it's made of cinder blocks instead of wood, it has a nice veranda, there are picnic tables and even magazines left by other hikers.  He heard this shelter is close enough to a road that a local pizza joint will deliver, but he's not going to order one.  He said he sure would like a Coke, though.  He was feeling better after relaxing for an hour and enjoying the view.

He said it was a nice day, but more humid.  He had his sweaty shirt and socks outside drying.  It's still getting down into the mid-60s at night, which he likes.

The only wildlife he saw today was woodpeckers.  He said they were very big with red heads, but not pileated.  He's been finding blackberries, though they are not ripe yet.  That reminds me, when we had our Atlanta grandchildren visiting, we went to the Bamboo Farm just south of Savannah which grows bamboo for zoo pandas.  They also experiment with many kinds of plants, flowers and berries.  We picked their blackberries and strawberries 4 weeks ago (and the strawberries were past their prime.)

Now for a couple updates/corrections. 1.  The rock formation formally known as the Fat Man's Squeeze is now known as the Lemon Squeeze (not Linen).  2. When Dave couldn't get Cliff Bars for less than $2.50 at the gas station closest to the Holiday Inn Express, he walked a half mile to yes, another gas station (the only places that carried groceries).  That's where the Cliff Bars were $2.00, so he opted for the Nature Valley bars for $1.00 each.  I told him Chad laughed at how he walked a mile - round trip - to save a dollar-fifty, and Dave said, I didn't have anything else to do!  This was on his Zero Day, you may remember, when he was supposed to be resting his feet.

I told Dave Pyro called, and reminded him of the ride in the hearse.  Dave started laughing and didn't stop until minutes later.

By nightfall, there were 6 or 7 people in the shelter, and some of them did end up ordering a pizza.  Dave was still thirsting for a Coke, so he and Buckeye decided to split a 2-litre Coke.  Buckeye is from, surprise, Ohio, and 67 years old.  The caretaker for the shelter, known as Elvis Trailsly showed up, he is 73.  He hiked the entire trail in 1971, and has the distinction of being #311 to have hiked the AT in one year.  Those two "old" guys were asking Dave why his trail name is OLD Granddad.

Dave was feeling much better in the evening.  He thinks he simply needed more calories and more water.

Dave's description of his evening's shelter was so lovely, I wanted to see if I could find a picture of it.  Here it is:

Wow. Not quite what I had in mind, but as long as Dave is happy I'm happy for him!!!