July 14th, Roger Hill Lean-To

July 14 Wed,


Started from Watkins Glenn with a thick fog and a cappuccino at the convince store at the bottom of the hill. While I was standing by my backpack drinking the coffee, two SUV's drove up towing a BMW racing car each. The men had on their special suits and shoes, clearly getting ready to do track work on the speedway. What a contract in modes of travel, racecars verses backpacker on foot. Had to wonder, just how many hiking trips I could financially cover with just one of those cars???????

It looked like rain was coming, so to prevent the rain, I put on my backpack cover -- it worked, no rain.

Tonight I am in a shelter by a pound. After I filtered 4 liters, I took a swim/bath. I get to get to bed clean tonight. The mosquitoes got so bad in the shelter; I put my tent up in the shelter and was able to sleep without the buzzing of the creatures in my ears.

Some of my little tricks of hiking are coming back to me i.e. when going down hill, lean back slightly and let the heel of the boot do much of the braking, rather than use the knees and thighs, or you can use the weight of the pack -- slightly forward helps to maintain the forward momentum, or slightly back keeps one from building up too much speed going down hill, or using a root or rock as a lever for forward leverage.

My hiking is getting more smooth and even, fewer and shorter breaks and pauses, especially on the up hill climb. And as my hiking gets more automatic, I find that I have started "thinking", realized that all my concentration has gone towards keeping my body in motion, balanced, avoiding mistakes such as stepping on a wet log or rock, or stepping between the tree roots so as not to slip. When I look back on the earlier weeks, my body hurt so much at times the discomfort blocked out my other thoughts.

At this point I am feeling some confidence, but like I would say on my AT Thru hike, I will only know that I have made it, when I take that last step of the hike.

I sat on a tree stump for 30-45 min's this afternoon, listening to the birds, watching a dragonfly, and watching barn swallows do their aerobatics.