[at-l] Ready's Journal July 25 TD 43

[kahley7@ptd.net (kahley)]

We had our 2nd earliest start yet, 6:15 AM! I'd awakened with pain 4 times 
during the night. Each time, I was able to "walk it off." I've discovered 
that standing up, moving around, and especially doing a few stretches 
brings immediate, almost complete relief for a period of time, allowing me 
to sleep.
It had not helped that it had been a hot, humid night. We had rolled up the 
rainfly on the little Nomad to permit the air to circulate. Neither of us 
used the silk liner, preferring to lie on top where the cool air might 
reach us.
After eating breakfast and packing up we moved on up the hill to the trail. 
The hike consisted of many ascents and descents throughout the day. At our 
first road crossing, we found pitchers of ice cold water! What a treat on 
this muggy day! It had been hot from the start, and at 10:00 AM it had 
already reached 93* in the shade!
We leapfrogged with many of the hikers from the Friary: Honey and Moon, 
Toast, Barry and Tommy, Julian, Pooh and too many others to even recall.
We were averaging just under 2 miles per hour over the difficult terrain of 
the morning and were optimistic about maintaining that pace during the 
easier afternoon terrain.
Our lunch spot was at Dennnytown Road, where we could fill up our waterbags 
at a spigot on an old stone building. Most of the hikers opted to eat under 
the shade of a tree nearby; Spur and I preferred an area nearer the trail, 
where there were plentiful flat stones to sit on, all in shade and away 
from the road.
We had a great lunch break, but finally, we reluctantly moved on.
We were making good time today. A 2 mph pace was easily
sustained and I felt virtually no leg pain.
We reached Fahnstock State Park, reminiscing about how
we'd met here at this very section during Spur's thruhike last year.
We got to the road crossing, Rte. 301, around 2 PM, a full hour
earlier than anticipated.
We learned that the canoe rental place would be closed at 3 PM.
  This was to be my rendezvous point with my dentist around 7:00
PM; we'd need a new plan and to communicate that plan to him.
We moved on to the Park Office a bit further down Rt. 301.
A gleaming Coke Machine just outside the office entry detained
us briefly. :-) Nobody here was much inclined to offer assistance.
  I couldn't help noticing the sign outside the office door, "Welcome!
  Remember, this is your park!" My thought was that "Don't bother us!"
  would have been more apt.
As we sat outside on the grass repacking our shared gear so that
  Spur could hike on with a complete, but less weighty complement
of gear, Julian strode up. He was going to the beach, and so was
everyone else in the group we'd been hiking with! What a great idea!
We found a working phone at the picnic area across the road
and placed our calls from there; email and dentist.


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