Tuesday, March 20, 2012

St. Patrick's Day on the Trail


We started our day late, getting dropped off at Mountain Crossings by Brian and Karrie as they headed home. Our mail drop with provisions was there waiting on us. I consulted their salesperson known as Worldwide, and he agreed that the pack I had was not good for me. He picked out a pack he thought would be best, and then did a 'pack explosion,' going through everything I had to see if I needed to leave anything out of my pack. Luckily, we had done our research, and I passed with flying colors. The truly amazing thing was how much better life became with the new pack. It didn't really feel like I was carrying much! I realize now that the old pack put too much weight on my shoulders. The new one sits most of it on my lower back. Even though we hit the trail at 11:40, we made great time and covered 12 pretty tough miles by 6:30. Along the way we had trail magic twice - a church group was on the trail a coue of miles after we started, and they were giving hikers apples. Then about 4 miles later, at Hog Pen Gap, we met Glenloch Baptist Church, who grilled us hot dogs with chips and cokes! Both groups would pray for the hikers to have safe journeys before they left. We made it to the St. Patrick's Day party at Low Gap in time for the hot dogs and beer. There was hikers who had brought a banjo and fiddle, so we were serenaded into the wee hours or the morning. There was also a hiker there who was about to be married and so this same group was throwing her a surprise bachelorette party. There were hikers running around in tiaras, bridesmaid sashes, and feather boas. Bman was there, and he came over to see the new pack, and he approved!

(Camped at Low Gap, 43.2 miles)
















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