8/7/20 Day 93: Wiley Shelter (1457.4) to Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter (1477.1)

Friday, August 7 9:07 pm 19.7 mi

AT 1457.4 Wiley Shelter → AT 1477.1 Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter

Weather: Rain overnight, hot and sunny all morning and afternoon, hot and overcast evening

Trail Conditions: Still lots of blowdowns and hurricane damage, but nothing very difficult to traverse. Today was a butt kicker! Lots of climbing and descending

My Condition: Sore and sleepy. Didn’t sleep well last night – was itchy and wide awake, so I took a Benedryl at 1:30 am but woke up pretty groggy. Should sleep well tonight!

Not a super noteworthy day – a couple great views, perfect for drying out after getting to the top sopping wet from sweat. Listened to a great passage in “The Way of Kings” by Brandon Sanderson – chapter 58: The Journey. “Yes I could have traveled quickly, but all men have the same ultimate destination...and so does the destination matter, or is it the path we take? No accomplishment has substance nearly as great as the road used to achieve it. We are not creatures of destinations. It is the journey that shapes us. Our calloused feet, our backs strong from carrying the weight of our travels, our eyes open with the fresh delight of experiences lived. The substance of our existence is not in the achievement, but in the method. [Do not] become so focused on what [you] wish to accomplish that you avert your gaze from the path you must take to arrive there.” Felt those words profoundly as I made the day’s steep descent listening to the book. Crossed into Connecticut, and hit the 2/3 point of the trail today.

Post Trail Analysis

I spent most of the evening in my tent, trying to contain my giggling as I wrote Puddles’s birthday poem/roast. Fortunately, my sleepless Benedryl night yesterday served as a perfect cover story to keep me from spilling the beans. I might be misremembering, but I believe tonight we shared a shelter site with the first SOBO hikers we would encounter, although I never did meet or see them. The descent at the end of the day was a butt kicker and I remember spending a lot of time sliding. Fortunately, the day ended with a nice, calm, flat stretch. I did a genuine double take when I arrived at the campsite and saw Blue and Jinx there already, as they had not passed me during the day! Apparently they found an alternate route around the descent.

Previous Day

Next Day