Trail Letter 10: 5/12, 5/13, and 5/14

23.6 wet and rusty miles today. After 4 (!) zero days in a row, I had nearly forgotten how to live out here — and I’m only partially kidding. It rained during most of my visit to D.C., so I was quite content lounging around Hoy’s enjoying a roof over my head while thinking about all these poor suckers hiking the A.T.

So I arrived back in Harper’s Ferry on 5/11 at about 5 p.m. to a torrential downpour (more like a steady, firm rain) and was determined to hit the Trail anyway. So i trekked to where I had exited and began walking. The Trail passes through part of “downtown” Harper’s Ferry, and I was hungry so I stopped under a porch to stay dry while I dug around the pack, but while I was searching for food, a taxi-van drove up with Fester, Five Bags, and Rat Sandwich, all of whom offered to split a hotel room with me. It was gloomy and pouring so I did.

This morning I dropped by the ATC to see the hiker picks, and the Feezel had passed through yesterday — but he’s got a new name — “CrazyLegs”. I hung around town until 12:30 waiting on Fester to buy new shoes and ship the old ones home — I could have gone on alone, but I wanted company today for some reason…

When we arrived at the first shelter, I saw that CrazyLegs had been there less than an hour ago — figured I’d see him at the end of the day, but I think he’s attempting the Maryland challenge — where you do 40+ miles of MA in less than a 24 hour period. So I’ll probably catch him soon. Bigfoot still hadn’t made it to HF.

The Trail today was quite literally a stream — in some places it was 18″ deep. I had a wonderful time splashing through puddles with my saturated boots, and Fester and I shared some good conversation. It looks like the miles are getting easier, as we pumped out more than 3 miles per hour today. I’m looking forward to some BIG mile days int he near future. And some sunshine…

5/13

26.3 “I-found-the-Feezel” miles today! It was very exciting to crest the mountain and see the short, darker skinned, longer haired, bandana wearing body resting on a rock, because I instantly knew it was the Feeze. I started singing his theme song, “Hi-Li-Looo! I’m a Melungeon, ooo!”

We caught up on our goings-on over the past month or so… It’s pretty amazing to realize it had been roundabout a month since we’d last seen each other. The familiarity and comfort that comes from deeper friendship has been nice today. Feezel changed his name to CrazyLegs because Feezel was too obscure, and CrazyLegs is easy (to understand and remember). He said Bigfoot’s not too far behind, so we’re hoping for a full reunion soon…

I forgot to mention that I saw about 10 or more deer playing in a field yesterday! I couldn’t figure out the rules to their game, but they certainly looked very happy. Today I saw a scarlet something — a vibrantly red bird. It looked like a flying glowstick, almost!

Today’s weather is the polar opposite of yesterday’s — bright and sunny without a single cloud in the sky. The Trail is still quite swampy, and my hamburger-feet will attest to that.

We exited Maryland today — Hello Pennsylvania! Just before the Mason-Dixon line, we encountered a playground at a state park. I merry-go-rounded, swung on the swing, slid down the slide and bobbled on those animal-spring-seat-things. War Paint has been hiking with us for most of the day — he’s 17, from Boston, and knows how to read.

My left knee has been blessing me with excruciating pain on steep grades — I think it jumped into “healing mode” during my hiatus and hasn’t realized yet that I’m not kidding about finishing the Trail. Hopefully it will disappear soon…

5/14

25.8 flat miles today. After a short 5 miles, CrazyLegs and I walked into “town” so I could pick up a maildrop. The only other life in South Mtn, PA besides a post office was a hotel/bar type establishment, so CrazyLegs and I scouted it out. After two games of pool in the empty bar, we ordered some food and downed it quickly.

Not too far down the Trail, a Trail Angel had left a styrofoam cooler filled with genuine Coca-Cola products — I had a cherry coke and took a root beer for the road. It was very refreshing.

My left knee is starting to feel better, but my right heel and left pinky toe are acting up. You’d think that by now, the body would be a machine — an unfallable rock-solid mile-crunching organism… but such is not the case. I’m still not halfway done, though.

This shelter is a regular zoo — in addition to the usual spiders, mice, and moths — tonight we have some special guests — two bats, a bird who built his/her nest here, and a family or two of wasps.

It’s been really nice hiking with CrazyLegs the last two days…