8/14/20 Day 100: October Mountain Shelter (1560.3) to Crystal Mountain Campsite (1576.8)

Friday, August 14 8:37 pm 16.5 mi

AT 1560.3 October Mountain Shelter → AT 1576.8 Crystal Mountain Campsite

Weather: Chilly overnight (YES!), warm and sunny today

Trail Conditions: Rocky and rooty

My Condition: Woke up sore, particularly in my feet. Felt like I was moving really slowly and sluggishly today (really wasn’t though)

The trail ran through Dalton, MA today. Grabbed a light resupply, a Coke, and a Surge from the gas station and two burritos from Hot Harry’s, one for now and one for later. Enjoyed my Surge and burrito, along with a bear claw from Blue, for dinner as they laughed at my recounting of yet another funny kid’s reaction to me. As a boy and his mom rounded the parked vehicle to my left where I was sitting outside at a picnic table eating, the mom was looking down at her phone. The boy grabbed the back of mom’s shirt to get her attention, turned straight towards me looking right at me. The mom said “Oh honey, just put your mask on, it’ll be ok.” He put his mask on, waited about 5 seconds, still looking right at me, and then ran away yelling at the top of his lungs. I don’t know if the kid is just super mask aware growing up during these crazy times, as I had mine off eating a burrito, or if I just stink/look like a crazy person, or both.

Post Trail Analysis

I LOVE days where you get to carry food out from town. There’s nothing wrong with half a container of carrot cake oreos, 2 blocks of cheese, a pouch of pepperoni, a bag of swedish fish, two Outrageous bars, and handful upon handful of peanut butter M&Ms, but you never appreciate a burrito quite like you do at the end of a long day of hiking. This campsite’s water source was still running, but only barely. Along with Hummingbird, Blue, and Puddles, we shared the area with Wild and a section hiker with her dog. I re-took my Pottermore quiz tonight, still angry about the last time I took it and ended up getting a weasel as my patronus. This time got a black mamba. Wow, somehow ended up on the complete opposite end of the patronus spectrum from weasel! To nobody’s surprise, I was still placed in Gryffindor.

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