20 July

20 July, Day 10 AT v2.0, 8.1 miles, Schectman Household. By Crocadilly-Climbing in the rain! The musings of crocadillypig And So I begin again where i left off yesterday! RAIN and lashings of it! It rained all night and we woke to a torrential downpour wishing that rather than now having to deal with a soaking tent we had stayed in the shelter! There was no way to pack up keeping everything dry but we were buoyed by the prospect of spending the evening in the warmth and comfort of Scotts friends the Schectman's! (Who he hasn't seen since 1990 so at least we would be meeting the family smelling really bad and soaking wet! ) The going was pretty tough and I think we were both mindful of the potential to  possibly hurt ourselves on such rocky terrain in such horrendous conditions so we did the only thing we could do and plugged along slowly and carefully measuring each careful footstep! I kept going by dreaming of Greek islands, sunshine, and thinking of films I love to watch in the rain! I actually enjoyed today more than yesterday and felt more sure footed! A soggy lunch was spent on top of a cooler full of trail angel water - ironic as we watched the torrents pour off everything! I was pleased we stopped for lunch for the extra energy as just a short time later we were facing the mother of all climbs up what can only be described as a rather high rock face which was near damn vertical! The sort where you definitely do not want to look down, and you certainly do not want to lose your hand or foot holds or want your pack to start pulling you backwards and off the cliff to a probable death or if you are lucky maybe just a couple of broken limbs! This time I kept my pack on - it was just too much to ask Scott to grab it and toss it upwards like he did for me yesterday! We each carried a dog pack as rightly so this was a little scary for them too and we did have to coax them up but they did it and they did it well! The feeling of elation reaching the top in the rain without so much as a slip was unbelievable! We soon were at a road where Russ could pick us up! Stopping was torture as we were soaked right through and the cold was getting to us! I have never been so grateful to meet someone new in my whole entire life! What a lovely man - I hugged him hard hahha which must have been incredibly unpleasant for him! It was then we discovered we were meant to have met him on The road where the cooler Was three miles back where we had lunch - the road  just before scaling the vertical precipice! Oh well!!  Back at the house I had the best and most welcome shower i think i have ever had in my life! Followed by clean warm fragrant smelling clothes, proper coffee, beer (yep made it about three hours!) and food! Unbelievable welcome and a gorgeous family! An incredibly pleasant evening unfolded before us and it was lovely to meet such wonderful people! And sleep in a real bed :)