"Complaining is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but doesn't get you anywhere."
Start: Boiling Springs
End: Darlington Shelter
Today: 14.2 mi
Total: 111.7 mi
Avg: 11.2 mi/day
Fun. The trail giveth and the trail taketh away. Today was no fun. Our $40 hiker priced room was at a beautiful resort so it was difficult to leave. On the way out Heather mentioned the breakfast buffet and threw out the "B" word...bacon. So we stopped for breakfast. I went to the post office to get our maildrop. I had packaged a bunch of supplies and food to be sent to us later. It's really strange mailing yourself a package. What's even more strange was that I had forgotten exactly what I sent myself. It was like giving myself a present and not knowing what it was. Weird! The worst part of the maildrop was that my pack weighed so much more with 5 days worth of food. Finally we were off and on the trail by 11 AM.
We walked through cornfields for much of the day...corn, corn, corn! It's sad to think most of these endless fields of corn will be turned into sugar syrup, helping Americans grow fatter. What happened to growing vegetables with actual nutritional value?
The scorched dirt of the cornfields was like walking on pavement under the blistering sun. My feet ached more than ever from the rock hard dirt. Every square inch of my feet felt bruised. The one positive thing about these fields was the absence of bugs. Must of been too hot even for them.
After 8 miles of that, the land began sloping upwards a bit. We saw Gaia, All Right and Half Left resting on a bench at one of only water sources that hot, thirsty day. Not fun. We ate lunch at the bench with our trail-friends. The most exciting part of the day was putting my old map away and taking out our next map! We are making progress and have officially covered 10% of the journey after our first 10 days (14% of allotted time). We seem a bit behind because you have to start off slower so you don't burn yourself out or seriously injure yourself as many who attempt this do. Only 25% of Thru-Hikers make it.
After the last 2 miles (a climb up the mountain of course) we have arrived at Darlington shelter. Because the shelter has bunks up off the (mouse visiting) floors, we decided not to pitch our tent and try it out. I threw my sleeping pad on the plywood bed and called it a night. Unfortunately, our ultralight sleeping pads made crinkling sound which was echoed by the plywood in the shelter. In the tent the fabric and ground must absorb the annoying sound. Oh well, after a long day of tough hiking nothing can keep me awake!
~Brian (Daddy Long Legs)
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