Trail Notes – May 10

11 miles today. My feet are bitterly complaining. Painfully complaining! Parts of the trail were easy, parts were very tedious, and parts were very hard. The hard parts were a lot of rock stepping over massive fields of suitcase-sized boulders (or bigger), in the rain. I did not take pictures, because it was wet and slick and dangerous. Tedium was stepping on or around smaller rocks for long sections of path. And easy path was largely reckless. My feet, it must be said, feel very bruised, beaten up, and are cramping to an astounding extent.

Home for tonight is the 501 Shelter, unique in that it is an actual building, with four walls, two actual doors, multiple bunks, and a huge octagon skylight. There are a fair number of people here. Also unique is that you can order and have pizza delivered here… And this last was accomplished!

The distance to the next shelter is about 18 miles. I am still not ready for that yet, particularly over Pennsylvania’s rocks. Particularly tomorrow. So tomorrow will be a ten miler, and the owner of a hostel other hikers recommended to us will pick us up, then return us to the trail in the morning. I like hostels. They are always cheaper than motels, and more personable.

It doesn’t look like I will get to Port Clinton until Friday. I am okay with this. It will be nice to take a zero day; by Friday, I will have been hiking every day for twelve days. My feet in particular could use the rest.

I need to sit down and work out some kind of budget or plan, so I don’t spend too much too soon. It is very easy to spend too much in trail towns. Too very easy. Particularly on motels. And food!

Speaking of which… I tried to replace my shredded rain pants with cheap rain pants from a KOA General store, for about $10. They lasted about two hours. Not even. It was pathetic. Fortunately, there is a Cabelas in the zero day town. Some expenses are necessary, like it or not. I just need to be more careful.

I hike on.