Day 102 - Thunderstorms (July 19)

I got soaked this afternoon. The sound of thunder was rolling across the sky. It was really cool, but a little scarey too. I had a really steep mountain to climb and several miles before the next shelter. I made it without any trouble.

None of my stuff will be dry tomorrow, which means I will be walking in wet shoes.

I'm at the Stoney Brook shelter with a new group of hikers. Pipi and Hambergler, Dartman, Mountain Sailor, Willy Boy and his brother in law, Len, who is with him for the week, and a guy with a Just Josh n one side and Stupid Sucks on the other.

I should be in Hanover, NH on Monday. Its going to be another expensive day at the outfitter. My shoes need to be replaced again, and my rain jacket is leaking. I keep thinking I'm almost done so why worry about this stuff, but its only on the AT that you can think you are almost done with 475 miles to go. I probably have about 4 weeks left on the trail.

I should be in the Whites on Thursday. I hear they are both beautiful and difficult. The AMC huts will be very expensive. I need to find other options. They want 90 dollars to stay at a shelter. The shelters are lodges for rich people. This makes it very difficult and expensive for thru hikers.

A section hiker was talking about running marathons. I asked him about distances people run to train for a marathon. He said that the professional athletes might run about 120 miles per week. I do more distance than this while wearing a pack and walking on extremely rugged terrain.