Tuesday July 24th 2012, 9.4 miles, Shenandoah Tenting Area. By Crocadilly - After a wonderful restful night at the sweetest smelling campsite so far we left the multitude of dragonflies behind and got on our way. For some reason regardless of how early we get up it always seems to be after ten by the time we get on the trail. This had us both annoyed this morning despite the good sunny weather, good health and a positive Long hike planned. After some discussion we decided we perhaps needed to reset the clock and planned lunch and a shorter day with relaxation planned for the afternoon! It got me thinking about the trail and the myriad of different ways you could approach it and how that could change your total experience of the .. Well I guess experience! For me I am determined to do as many miles as I can and I really want to reach Katahdin. It is a journey to get there and I know at times it will be tough and uncomfortable but there has to be balance and time to enjoy the experience which so far I am immensely. but without trying to sound cheesy enjoying and appreciating where you are, what you are doing and the people you meet. We have met one or two people whose challenge is to get to the finish as fast as possible. They are pulling massive mile days some doing as many as thirty plus. I couldnt do that mentally or physically. I always wonder as that would never be my ambition and( i have the utmost admiration for those that tackle this challenge in that way )what they get out of it other than the sense of achievement of finishing and finishing fast. They don't get to spend so much time with amazing new people or to sit and see the amazing vistas or visit the towns and enjoy the moments. For me already so much of what we have done is a blur and one moment stretches to another easily so imagine that happening at twice the speed?! I wouldn't be able to tell you any of the names of the people I have met or the places i have travelled through! But that is just me! So anyway we ended up doing a short day. And I ended up doing alot more thinking ... Even more than usual! We found another amazing little campsite about two pm. It was a well kept mowed open area with a couple of old buildings and was quiet and peaceful! I throughly enjoyed lying in the soft grass in the sunshine for the afternoon! A guy set up camp shortly after we arrived - he was taking his son camping for a few days so it was great fun talking with them and hearing about everyones plans! He seemed worried about bears / it took us a while to convince him that with the boys around
no bear would come near! We eventually even convinced him that it would be okay to leave his food supplies in our vestibule (Scott has had up to 15 food bags in the tent at any one time) - mental note to self cannot continue to do that when the boys are no longer hiking with us! Later in the evening i met my first south bounder who came and set up camp. He was a great character and played the didgereedoo (sp?!!) as the sun was going down! Awesome - can't believe he carries that around with him! Now is the time that we will start to cross the south bounders which will make the experience all the more interesting!
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