Spirit (Fran) paddled the 700 miles between Key West and St Marks, but cannot hike. Instead she met me at the trailhead on US 64 in our little RV.
I grab a hot shower, hot meal, two mugs of hot chocolate, clean clothes, four days of food and fuel, and recharge the phone battery, do an hour of blogging and emails, and get a hug goodbye.
Yep, she preps my food bags and has a fresh stack of clean clothes waiting, and cooks a meal while I'm there. Wow! Am I about the luckiest hiker out there? I hear Buzz and Izzy saying "She's too good to you. You don't deserve her". True enough.
There is a practical side to it. I'm guessing that I save about ten days overall by not having to go into towns. That means ten fewer snow days in Nova Scotia! Paired with long hiking days, that's just about my whole plan on how I can keep going another 850 miles after the Appalachian Trail ends.
Even with my town day, I made 14.5 miles. Actually I stopped an hour early to avoid an exposed ridge since thunderstorms are forecast, and sure enough I hear the first bangs as I write this, safe and dry in my tent.
No comments:
Post a Comment