A Quarter Down
Tonight (May 8), I am camping on the banks of Lick Creek. It’s another sort of unofficial campsite, so this makes two nights in a row. Along this stretch of the trail, the shelters with campsites aren't really spaced in a way that matches my cadence, but that's okay. I think tomorrow, I'll be in a shelter or, really, by a shelter. I don't really like to stay in them.
This morning, I was up and mostly ready to go by around 7:00, but it ended up raining last night, and I had hung out some clothes to dry. They were all soaked, of course, so I tried to give them a few extra minutes to dry, but that was sort of an exercise in futility, given that the humidity was 100%. In the end, I just decided to put on wet clothes, and I was on my way by 7:30.
Shortly after I started hiking, I reached the one-quarter mark on the trail. There's a sign on the AT that says you're one-fourth of the way to Maine, and the other side says you're three-fourths of the way to Springer Mountain. I felt a little bit jealous of the people who were three-quarters of the way through their hike.
You know, I’d gone 550 miles at that point, and, man, that feels like a long way. So it was a little bit depressing, to be honest, to be reminded that that was only 25% of the total distance. But that first quarter includes a really big adjustment period. So I assume future fractions will go a little bit faster.
Otherwise, today was really just a day of getting from point A to point B. I've had a few days like that so far. Today was also full of more pointless ups and downs, or PUDS. Big time. I think there were probably about seven of them today. I’d go up a very steep climb, no reward at the top, steep decline back down to the level I’d started at, and then on to the next one.
Around midday, it started to rain a little bit, and I knew there was a shelter coming up, so I tried to rush to get to it before the rain really moved in, so I could take a break there until it passed. I ended up getting a little wet, but fortunately, a big portion of the rain happened while I was in the shelter having a late lunch, so that was good.
After lunch, I was about two-thirds of the way through my hike for the day, and I came to the final PUD, which was a big middle finger to everyone out there. It was this very steep one-mile up and then a very steep one-mile down, ending at Lick Creek.
In 2020, the bridge crossing the creek got washed out, and judging from the depth of the river, that must have been one heck of a storm, or maybe it was a series of storms, because the water was very tame. This is the first river I’ve had to ford, but it was super simple. I stopped on the bank, put my Tevas on, and crossed without incident.
After doing all the regular camp stuff, I got into my tent around 7 o’clock and was getting ready to listen to a podcast, when I heard a bunch of people outside, talking. They were on the opposite bank of the creek, debating their strategy for how they were going to cross. Some of the voices sounded familiar, so I got out of my tent, put my sandals on, and saw that it was Maple Leaf, Asstronaut, Heavy, and Pathfinder. I just keep running into those guys.
I‘d seen them back at the I-81 crossing, and at that point, they were planning on going further than I’d wanted to, so we kind of parted ways for a bit. And then they decided to stop off at a hostel during the day to get out of the rain, so I actually passed them. And then lo and behold, they showed up here.
The second they saw me after I popped out of my tent, they immediately started complaining about that last PUD. Apparently, it had bugged them just as much as it had irritated me.
It’s now rained seven of the past nine days. I have my clothes hanging out on a line right now, in hopes that they might dry out a bit. It could rain again overnight, but it’s not like my stuff could get any wetter, so if that happens, so be it. I've got a trash bag I can put them in, in that case.
I’ve got a huge climb tomorrow morning to start the day, but then I think the rest of the hike should be pretty good.
