Day 40, 7-24-07

The 40^th Day! This was exciting. It was also a little grim. We put on our nice dry stuff from the fire yesterday, and set out. It started to rain. And it rained. And rained. And Rained some more. At one point, the trail looked like a big muddy stream rushing at us. For a while I was trying to walk on the sides of the trail to not get my feet too totally soaked, but after about an hour or two of that, what’s the point anymore? So we went galooshing down the middle of the trail. I had a moment of grimness, then I thought: Hey, this is what every kid dreams about: stomping in puddles to my heart’s delight. I was happy for a few minutes. Then I realized that, at the end of all that stomping in puddles, we always went in, got skinned out of our wet clothes by Mom, and then had Hot Chocolate. There wasn’t mom, dry clothes, or hot chocolate waiting for us. So we get to this shelter. It’s nice. Really nice. It’s also really close to a ranger station. As in, maybe a ¼ mile? Maybe? We had to both get to town for food, and to the PO for a mail drop we had sent on ahead. We call some people from the Station, and find out that the shuttle is going to charge us $1 a mile. Since we had…at least two places to go, and that they were in different directions, we decided to stick out our thumbs. So Close and Caleb went one way, I went the other. They were going to pick up the mail drop, I was going to go into town to buy food for C and I. A really awesome guy picks me up, and we hang out some. He brings me to the food place, I take care of business, and then he takes me back. He was driving from ME to Asheville, and was camping along the AT as he went. So he figured he’d hang out and share company. I was totally down with that, so that’s what happened. So I get back. We go to the Ranger Station. We pick up the phone they have outside for hikers. We call Pizza Hut. 2 Large Stuffed Crust! Then we go back and eat Ben and Jerry’s. I killed a pint of Phish Food all by my lonesome, totaling 1080 Calories of gloriousness. Then we waited for the pizza. It showed, and we put a hurt on it. Two pieces left. After that, we all dove into our sleeping bags and called it a night. I had a crazy dream that night about running from a huge rattlesnake, and it started to rain so much that eventually I was trying to run in water up to my chest. I never have chasing dreams like that….well, I guess almost never…

That's me in the background. It started raining soon after that, which is why we only have two pictures from this day.











The Pizza! Thank you, Pizza Hut!