Lynn and I got to be trail angels today. We saw a thru hiker in the town of Bland and gave him a ride to the trailhead. His trail name was Santa's Helper. He reminded me of the Santa that Runtrails met on her thru hike. I asked him why he chose Santa's Helper rather than just Santa. "Well," he said, "I don't want to mislead the children." We dropped him off near I-77. I actually needed to start a few miles north of here and head south so I told him I would most likely see him on the trail today.
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Heading off
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I saw lots of hikers this morning. Sure enough, after a couple hours on the trail I saw Santa's Helper coming from the other direction. Now you can see why he chose Santa's Helper as his trail name.
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There just aren't enough smooth sections like this on the Appalachian Trail.
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The only shelter in today's section was a quarter of a mile off the trail. I wasn't ambitious enough to hike an extra half mile roundtrip to see a shelter, so I kept going. Today's section was broken in the middle by a long road walk. 'Watch for fallen rocks'. Now that's comforting.
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Nearing I-77
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The bridge over I-77
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I-77
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I thought this area looked neat where the side of the mountain was cut back for the road. This is where we had dropped off Santa's Helper earlier.
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Up a gravel road.
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Crossing some powerlines. My closest thing to a view today.
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Finally, the trail went back into the woods. 6.4 miles to go.
I gave Lynn a call to let her know I was running about an hour ahead of schedule.
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I found some trail magic, several gallons of water. Apparently someone has been leaving trail magic as a memorial. I found this label on one of the water jugs.
How sad :(
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More smooth trail which is why I was so far ahead of schedule.
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Trail junction
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I saw lots and lots of hikers this morning, but not one in the afternoon. I passed some of the time on this mundane section of trail by playing with my GPS. The GPS stated I was less than a mile away. Of course this is as the crow flies. I knew I hadn't gone anywhere near the distance I should have. There must be lots of switchbacks ahead. Sure enough, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth as I made my slow descent down the mountain. I was almost done when I came across a picnic table. This would have been a nice spot for a break, but I was almost done for the day so I kept going.
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Next I met a trail angel who had just filled a cooler full of gatorade and ice.
"It's not cold yet because I just filled it, but help yourself," the trail angel said.
"Thanks a bunch," I replied as I grabbed a grape gatorade.
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A few seconds later I was on the road. I walked a minute down the road to where Lynn parked the car. I could see her and Madison down by Laurel Creek. That sounded like a great idea. I brought Madison in the water to cool off. I had to keep her on the leash to keep her from running. We still need to keep an eye on her elbow.
The cold stream felt great on my sore feet.
