Half Squeezed

Well, it’s Tuesday, July 16, and I’m on night three at the Lost and Found Hostel. No, I haven’t moved in. When I got here on Sunday, I was only planning on staying the night, but then on Monday morning, the forecast said it was going to be really hot. And one of the other people staying here — his trail name is Poles — had decided to do a slack pack and stay at the hostel a second night, which sounded pretty appealing. Hiking in the heat is a lot more palatable when you’re not lugging a full pack.

Also, I was still waiting to see what was going on with my dad in the hospital. They’d been running a lot of tests but didn’t have any concrete answers yet, and I wasn’t sure if I should get too far out on the trail, or too far away from town, I guess I should say, until we had a better handle on that situation, So, at the last minute, I decided to jump onto Poles’ plan and slack pack, too.

The shuttle driver dropped us off about 20 trail miles north at Seven Lakes Drive, and we'd be hiking south, back in the direction of the hostel. One of the nice parts about hiking south, especially over such a long stretch of trail, is that you get to see a lot of people who are hiking at a little bit of a different pace than you are. And right off the bat, Poles and I ran into Phoenix.

Phoenix (“LSD Guy”) and Poles

After that, the first people I bumped into were Highlighter and Steady. I hadn't seen them since just before the Shenandoah National Park. Then I saw Jay Walker. Then Terminator. Then I crossed paths with Meow Mix and Chuckwagon. And then I bumped into Boots with the Fur. And those were just the hikers I’d met before. I actually ended up seeing a lot of other hikers along the way, too, which was kind of fun.

Unfortunately, Boots with the Fur gave me some sad news about another thru-hiker that I only met briefly at the ATC in Harper’s Ferry. She was one of the hikers who passed through Beagle Gap when S. and our friends were doing Trail Magic. Apparently, she woke up in her tent one morning not able to stand or walk and has since been transferred to the hospital, where they’re trying to figure out what the issue is. It doesn’t seem to be anything that was caused by her hiking the trail, though — more like an underlying issue that just happened to manifest while she was out here. I really hope she ends up okay.

Poles and I started out the day together, but he hikes faster than I do, so he went ahead and stayed ahead of me for most of the day. Another hiker named Not Yet who was also staying at the Lost and Found Hostel had decided to hike 17 miles and had been dropped off after me and Poles. So I ended up catching up to him, and we hiked most of the day together.

New York doesn't get a lot of notoriety for its terrain, and I don't understand why. The 20 miles I hiked with just the day pack was possibly the single hardest day I've had on trail yet. The heat certainly didn't help any, and there wasn’t a lot of water along that section of trail. That was definitely a challenge throughout the whole day. The terrain was either straight up or straight down, which made my pace very slow. Normally, if you're slack packing, you can cover miles a lot faster, but in this case, it wasn't any faster than if I’d had a full pack. But at least I didn't have to take as many breaks as I would have if I’d had a full pack.

The most notable feature of the hike was something known as the Lemon Squeezer, which is a very narrow section of trail that goes between two boulders, and you have to try to shoehorn your way through. I couldn’t fit through the first section I came to, but I managed to kind of squish my way through the second part.

I didn't take a lot of pictures along the way because my phone was in my day pack, and I didn't want to keep taking my pack off to get my camera out. Also, I was sweating so profusely that it was difficult to even use my phone. I realize that that's kind of gross, but that's just the way it goes. In the end, I was really thankful that I chose to jump onto Poles' plan to slack pack, but it was definitely a long, hot, sweaty, difficult day. It took me about 10 hours to go those 20 miles. And boy, am I glad I didn't have to do it with a full pack.

After I got back to the Lost and Found Hostel, I went over to the convenience store and grabbed a Gatorade, an orange juice, and a beer [Modelo] so I could get rehydrated and reward myself after the long day. A couple of us ordered pizzas, and Pete — who is the owner of Lost And Found and just the nicest dude ever — took Not Yet and Poles out to pick up the pizzas. By the time we’d finished eating, it was after 9:00, and I was so exhausted and sapped from the heat that I decided to take a zero day today.

The weather forecast had said that the temperature today would be even warmer than it was yesterday when we were slacking, and judging from the condition of the hikers that showed up today who’d been out in it, I definitely made a wise decision to not hike today. Instead, my day was pretty mellow. I spent some time in the morning planning out the next few days of my hike and organizing my backpack. I returned to the place in town that is the combo garden center and bakery and taproom and hung out there for a while. I had a buffalo chicken salad, some soup, and a couple beers, and it was a really nice way to spend a few hours.

When I got back to the hostel, some more hikers had shown up, including You Did, who I mentioned back in Pennsylvania. It was nice to catch up with her for a little bit. There’s another hiker here who’s named Alpiner, and he's from Switzerland, so we've got a German and a Swiss in the bunkroom tonight. Oh, I moved from the private room into the bunkroom for tonight. I don’t think I mentioned that before.  

Anyway, Pete picked up another hiker from Germany this evening whose phone wasn't working. Apparently, she came into town and just started wandering around looking for the hostel. The hostel's actually full tonight, but Pete took her in anyway and found a place for her on the couch. It's going to thunderstorm soon, and it's miserably hot out, so I think everyone here is very happy to be inside.