Day 37: Chinese Food!

Start: Dennytown Road Campsite (AT mi 1421.1). Stop: RPH Shelter (AT mi 1431.9). Today’s miles: 10.8 miles. Total AT mileage: 407.2 miles

My new pad held up great.. but I still tossed and turned all night anyway. There were a lot of people camped nearby and I had trouble getting comfortable because of my rash. Awesome, I know. But the pad was definitely not the problem. And today is the first time I could say that in like 2 weeks.

I got up just after 6 to go to the bathroom (this campsite had legit port-a-potties), and then everyone started moving so I got my food bag down from the tree, packed half my stuff, and ate breakfast. Once the sun came up and dried the condensation off my tent some, I finished packing. I didn’t get started until 8am.. and only walked maybe 300 yards to the water spigot and was promptly offered a Gatorade by a guy and his cute pup. They were waiting for his wife to come through, she is thruhiking, he’s being the support. Pretty awesome!

The terrain from yesterday continued today. The gentle slopes and mostly quick miles. I finished up an audiobook and before I knew it I was catching up to Cholula who was getting ready to go down a side trail to the lake with a concession stand. Derby, Towely, and Curmudgeon were already there, and text us to inform us that the lake was swimmable with a beach, but the concession stand was closed. Well, damn.

We went anyway. Cholula, Towely, and I jumped off a dock and swam in gross looking lake water with way too many long plants touching my body than I’d ever prefer. But ya know what? We were getting to swim. So, I happily took what I was offered. Squirtle, HungerStrike, and PolkaDot were there, too. They had already swam and were drying out. Once we got done swimming, we did the same.. and ate lunch, too.

Getting moving again after that was hard. Mainly because the water (however dirty it was) was so relaxing! We were planning to go 7 more miles today, but decided we’d get to the next shelter and make a decision then to stay or carry on. This issue with carrying on means toting water the 3 miles from the shelter, because there are no more water spots from here to the place on the ridge where we’d camp.

The last 5 ish miles went by smoothly, but my feet starting to ache like crazy. Each step started hurting, like I was walking barefoot. I turned on some music and tried to literally tune it out. Three days til new shoes! God, I pray they fit.
I made it to the shelter and a good chunk of the people from last night are here. Of course, Cholula, Curmy, Derby, and Towely.. but so was FirstGear, Ben, and Beaver, and a NOBO hiker who’s name I don’t know. This shelter is pretty awesome and a trail angel left us trail magic: cold drinks and awesome snacks. Everyone decided to stay.. and I decided to order Chinese food off of DoorDash. My fortune, “Today could be almost perfect. Enjoy it.” Ok, you got it. Lol

While we were all eating our Sesame chicken and General Taos, HotSauce walked up! He and FarOut were going to stay tonight, too! She was just behind a little at the creek getting cleaned up. They ordered food, and more and more hikers kept appearing. Disco, Portrait, and 3-5 other people who’s names I didn’t catch. It was a good group.

Everyone sat around at the tables outside the shelter talking as the sun sank in the sky.. We aren’t allowed to have fires here, so everyone dispersed to bed around 8-8:30. Derby and I are the only two in the shelter, which has 6 bunks. They even have little foam mattresses! Haha
It’s almost 9pm and I’m wiped.. tomorrow will be a long day for us since we cut today short. I’m hoping Lizard catches up to us soon. I’m also hoping the terrain remains kind. I’ll know soon enough.