Friday, August 14th (day2)
14.4 miles today. It was too many for us. We were completely depleted by the time we got to the shelter after 9 1/2 hrs of hiking. We had mostly uphill today, and it was tough. I remember this day when doing my AT thru hike three years ago, and it was tough then too. In fact, we did the same miles as I did in this section with thru hiker speed. I was electrolyte depleted once I got to the shelter, and one of the hikers gave me some Gatorade mix. It helped a lot. I was barely hungry, but cooked a good meal, and the more I ate, the more I wanted it, and the better I felt. For dessert, I mixed up some pudding. (Equal parts pudding mix, powdered milk, and protein powder) it is something Sparky's wife would send us when we were on the AT. It was yummy! Thanks Janet! Everything hurts right now. We are near the top of a mountain and it is raining very hard. Thankfully the rain started about 20
minutes after we arrived. We will sleep in the shelter again tonight. I slept fairly well last night.
Tonight we are camping with more AT thru hikers tonight. All very friendly, and one familiar face from last night-a guy named Squirrel . All others we camped with last night went into town today to take a couple days off. Maybe we will see them again. We have only met two other Long Trail northbounders. They didn't hike as far as us though today. Hopefully we will meet more soon, so we can develop some friendships. Zippy has been a great hiking partner. We have hit it off quite nicely.