May 23
Today's terrain was tough! Even the "flat" sections were tough rock scrambles with lots of smallish ups and downs. We reached our first metal rungs in the rocks today. I'm glad they were on a downhill portion and not an uphill. I think there will be many more to come. Without a 30-40 lb pack on, I'm sure these types of challenges wouldn't be very daunting. It's a different story when a pack changes your center of gravity. I'm definitely getting used to it though!
Dragon's Tooth was pretty neat, but not really what I expected. I felt like we were on the backside of it so we couldn't get the full effect. I still got a pretty cool photo of Muffin Man at the top though. He's giving the thumbs up. I was too scared/smart to climb up there.
Bluebird said her knee has been hurting her these past few days so I loaned her my knee brace. I haven't worn it for weeks, but will carry it all the way to Katahdin just in case. I hope it helps her! Then we hiked into Catawba, a small gas station just off the trail, for pizza and resupply. I spent $40 (a ton!) for two days of food and a pizza, but a girl's gotta eat! I packed out the other half of my pizza to eat for dinner.
Hiking out was tough after so much food and the heat was pretty brutal. Muffin Man was particularly struggling. About a mile from our first shelter option we passed two 2013 thru-hikers in the parking lot. They were passing out sodas and beers to thru-hikers. I've learned that I can't drink carbonation while I'm hiking (it makes me feel awful), so I politely passed. The guys took them up on it though. We decided to call it quits for the night at the next shelter. We're just too full and worn out!
Best Thing: Meeting the former thru-hikers.
Looking Forward To: McAfee Knob, the most iconic part of the trail.
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