Day 142

12.5 miles to Depot Hill Rd. Got on trail late today. We chatted with Col Phillips, then met Aimee at the trailhead. Yesterday walking back got her car DogTag met her-she is local and has a farm and has events for veterans, and she was very interested in the story and mission. She was so sweet and was excited to hear about thru hiking as well. As we were getting ready to leave a group of thru hikers cam thru so we gave them some Gatorade and chatted for a bit. Trial today was actually great. There were a couple steep climbs and rocky sections, but so much better than it has been. Or maybe I just appreciate it more. At one point I did think “if I had quit a few days ago I would have missed this” which hopefully will stay in my mind for future hard times. There is a deli and pizza place about 0.3 off trail so we stopped there for lunch and then went a few more miles, I was actually willing and feeling good to do another 2 since we won’t be able to slack pack the next several days, but SourPatch was hot and grumpy so we stopped. Headed back to the pizzeria since the let us camp for free and have good food and breakfast. After carbonara and gelato, we settled into bed.