June 30

Another great day

Mostly downhill this morning.  The sun is shining, and the rain last night cooled things off considerably.  Guessing it's only in the high 80s now.  This is doable now.  Got some trail magic from a local family at Antietam shelter.  Cold soda.  Yum!  A short way farther, we stopped at Tumbling Run shelters for a water break.  This was another dual shelter configuration.  The maintainer here must have a great sense of humor.  There was a sign on one shelter that said "snoring", and the other shelter had one saying "non-snoring".  Haha.  Nice cooking pavilion too.  Had a 'big' 900 foot climb out of there, up to Chimney Rocks.  We stopped to enjoy more great views.  A Boy Scout troop was up there taking a lunch break and gave us all apples.  Awesome!  We're actually gaining some elevation, bouncing around near 2000 feet for the first part of the afternoon.  Temperatures still nice and relatively cool.  We stopped for lunch, right on the trail, near Rocky Mountain shelters.  The sky started getting dark.  We took off hiking again.  I had my pack cover on, but it never really opened up into a full on rain.  Our group got kind of split up, and I ended up hiking alone for a while.  The woods were dark.  At one point, I paused, turned around, and noticed a white blaze on a tree.  It's funny, at that moment I got this feeling, goosebumps.  Standing in the dark, green, forest in PA.  Looking southbound down the trail, and thinking about how far in that direction it was to where I started in Georgia.  It had a feeling of being a real thru hiker.  It's kind of hard to describe.  I'm guessing like how a pro athlete must feel.  As a kid, dreaming about playing in the NBA.  Holding a balled up pair of socks.  Counting down, "Three", "Two", "One", and tossing them in the hamper.  Swish.  The buzzer goes off.  The crowd goes wild.  Then years later, making it into the league.  Being on the court.  Making that last second shot to win the game.  Living that dream you had dreamed about for so long.  It was like that for me.  All the videos I watched.  The books I read.  The photos of other people's thru hikes.  All the hours of research.  All the gear purchases.  All the day hikes.  Now that hiker was me.  An incredible feeling.  I met everyone at Caledonia State Park.  Nice place.  Hiking trails, picnic areas, pool.  We hit up the snack bar for some sodas, burgers, and fries.  Since there was a fee to use the pool, we went back to the AT, to a swimming hole just outside the park.  Highking, Apache, and I got our clean on, scrubbing down with our Dr Bronners soap to get the dirt and salt off our bodies.  The water was cold and refreshing.  The rain clouds were nowhere in sight.  After taking a leisurely afternoon break at the swimming hole, we hiked on a few miles, leaving the park.  We made it to Quarry Gap shelters.  This is hands down the most amazing shelter on the trail so far.  The maintainer, or "Innkeeper", here has really outdone himself.  A happy picket fence and hanging potted flowers greet you as you enter the shelter area.  Then there's a nice bench to sit on, next to the spring.  Nice tent platforms.  Then the shelter itself.  Two separate sleeping areas, that each hold 3 or 4 hikers, with a covered porch connecting them.  A picnic table underneath the porch roof.  Lots of cozy details, like lanterns, carved wooded yellow rubber duckies on the walls, more hanging plants.  Amazing.  A chess board.  A shelter log, and a separate notebook specifically for 'doodling'.  Haha.  This place looks more like a hostel.  A nice hostel at that.  Knocked out a decent 15 miles today, took a lot of breaks, and had a blast doing it.

Quarry Gap shelter