Plenty of rocks to twist your ankles on
I awoke in a state that me feel abandoned and alone. It was as if I was the only human left on the planet. It was silent enough that I could individual leaves hit the ground after breaking ties with their tree. It was as if the world had frozen for me to have this moment.
After saying a final goodbye to Mother Nature and Smokestack, I started northward towards Maine. It was 6:45AM.
I started the day with an 800 foot climb to the top of Chimney Rocks. This summit ridge had no views and plenty of rocks to twist your ankles on. The trail would traverse the ridge, then leave the ridge and skirt the side of the ridge, then it would return to the ridge. It did this several times, it was as if the trail maintainers could not decided whether to traverse the ridge or not, so they did a little bit of both.
The trail then began a tumbling descent towards US route 30. At this road crossing Cookie and I walked .4 mile off the trail to hit an Italian place for pizza. The pizza was quite good and I ended up packing out quite a bit. It shall be my dinner for the next couple of nights.
I also bumped into Lucky here. He's doing a flip flop, he started in Bland, Virginia.
I was back on trail at 12:20PM after a two hour break. The trail proceeds to go through Caledonia State Park. It then marches you up 1,000 feet to a place with no view.
I spent the climb hiking and talking with Lucky. He's a retired Department of Defense technician/engineer from Indiana. His job was to test missiles to ensure all parts were functioning properly. I was naturally interested in his line of work so I picked his brain about it as we walked to the shelter.
Once the bulk of the climbing was over it was fairly easy hiking. I rolled into Birch Run Shelter just before 5:00PM, and this shall be my home for the night.
Tomorrow I will be crossing the half way point. In Pine Grove Furnace State Park, 9.9 miles into my day tomorrow, there is something called the "half gallon challenge". This is where you try to consume a half gallon of ice cream in one sitting. Tomorrow it shall be my turn.
Tomorrow I shall continue walking home.
Good night, and good luck.
Kirby
Ga>ME 2008.
