July 21st, Bivouac

July 21, camping in the woods

My best mileage to date and my best energy level at the end of the day so far. Thu at the end of the day, I felt too tired to eat, I had to really work at it, food just did not feel good, but I know it is important. The calories I take in tonight are the ones I will burn tomorrow. Yesterdays rain brought out the Knutes -- kept have the lines, "knutes to the left or me, knutes to the right of me, here I am stuck in the middle again" go through my head. For some reason, I thought about White Castle hamburgers several times today. Strange what foods pass through one's mind as they hike. It rained hard twice this afternoon. The first one caught me off guard, i.e. the first rain was short and the sun came out, so I continued down the back country road the trail was on, then it really hit, I was caught unprepared and go soaked i.e. I had to take my boots off, pour the water out, and wring my socks. Later, a second storm rolled in, and I got myself ready, i.e. I got in some pines with have somewhat of and umbrella effect, wrapped myself in my large tarp and covered my boots. I was good to go once the storm past. In the later afternoon, a third storm started rolling in, I was on a back road, got into another stand of pines, made a cover over the tent with the large tarp, got everything ready for the storm, i.e. had everything in the tent or covered with tarp or pack cover. The storm passed just below where I was camped. That was ok, I was wet enough. But I did sleep warm and dry. That is always good.