Day 60

Broke my first tent stake. The ground at Trimpi Shelter for the tenting area was like packed clay and rocks. I had to use a rock to pound my tent stakes into the ground. Apparently, I drilled one stake into a rock so in the morning, I couldn’t remove it. After struggling with it and hitting it sideways with a rock trying to loosen it, it just snapped in half. These groundhog stakes are still my favorite. Strong and very difficult to bend or break. I just found a way to do it. I have backup shepherd hooks so I’m good. Always be prepared. I started the day with it being something like 51 F. The warmest morning yet! I burnt my shoulders SO bad yesterday even with SPF 30 on so I wore a long sleeve even though it was too hot for it. I rocked the shorts today though. Definitely needed to. Let’s just say, it got HOT! Before that, I came across trail magic from a local church at the first road crossing and was given a cheese quesadilla. What?! Fantastic! Thank you, Jerry. I had just eaten my glazed cinnamon roll but there’s always room for grilled cheese. Partnership Shelter was nice. It has a really nice privy, seating area and even a shower, which, unfortunately, had a missing handle so I guess they don’t want anyone using it. The rest of the day was just HOT! Most of the time, I’m in the woods with bare trees so no cover from the sun and my thermometer on one climb actually reached 90.5 F for a few minutes. Most of the time it was around mid-80. Whenever I found water, I would dip my rag in it and either wrap it around my neck for evaporative cooling or just keep it wet to wipe myself with. If I had found a creek large enough, I was ready to jump in. It definitely feels like the cold is over. You never know though. I’m starting a list of what I can get rid of next once I’m sure we won’t have a super cold snap. I need to find something to wear under my shorts like leggings or something. Then I can get rid of my heavy insulated pants. I already sent my down puffy home. I wasn’t using it. I’ll keep my Melanzana micro-fleece hoodie and rain jacket to the end. Put those together and it was better than the puffy. Better option when the rains come too. I’m at Hatfield Shelter now. The damn privy is boarded up for some reason and I had to hang my food bag because there’s no bear box. The ground is slanted everywhere so no really good tent sites but I made a spot work. I’m only here because there’s a good group here I’ve enjoyed talking with. Otherwise, there was no reason making this shelter location better than just stealth camping somewhere. At least there’s a good water source easy to get to right in front of the shelter. Tomorrow, I’ll walk somewhere around 5 miles to have a nero to the alpaca farm. How can I turn down staying there? If what I’m hearing is correct, it’s an amish group living (next or in?) a crater and an alpaca farm. Guess that explains why there’s a separate shuttle service for $15 to go into town for a resupply. They must not have a car. Kinda bummed though. I think getting shuttled into town on one of those Amish horse buggies would be an experience. It to pass up. LOL! They should make that an option. My plan after staying there is to not have a plan. Im going to load up a few days of food and then just plan what im doing each day for a while and see how that goes. I need to tackle my phobia of the unknown and I also want to be more spontaneous with where I stop for breaks and where I stay. I think planning my campsites in advance has pushed me hard and stopped me from just stopping somewhere to eat a snack and enjoy the view or soak my feet in water, etc. This will either be a great plan (of not having one) or a horrible idea. We’ll see!