Tent site to tent site :)

I think I have reached a new level of dirtiness. Poured rain all night last night and splattered mud all over my tent. Pretty much everything is soaked and dirty. We've been pretty lucky and had just been discussing when we were going to get 'our week of rain'. From the forecast, it looks like this could be it.

. A hiker named Time to Eat, who did the bottom half of the trail this year and just finished at Harpers Ferry last week, came out to do trail magic for all those that he'd been hiking with. Didn't even recognize him without his facial hair!

So... About the new shoes. My feet are not as happy as I'd hoped. They are actually great on the rocks, but not much cushion inside. Did a lot of soaking in cold springs today. Tomorrow I'm doing shorter miles so I can get into town and buy some inserts!! AND do laundry! 

Almost everyone out here has seen a rattlesnake, but I have not. Thankfully. But today, Mando was hiking in front of me a ways and Big Spoon and Toast were behind me a little ways, and they all saw a big rattlesnake beside the trail. Which means..... That he left his spot beside the trail for awhile when I hiked by? EEEEEK. It means he was there and I just didn't see him!!!!!

So, blaze lesson for the day... If you see an offset double blaze like this

It means there is a turn in the trail and it goes in the direction of the top blaze.

The trail today was a running stream in many parts and the streams were running really high. Came to this spot where you had to hike across this log. 

Not so easy for clutzy me with my pack on, but I made it.

We are near a military base and about every 30 minutes a big apache (or so I'm told) helicopter flies right over . Very peaceful :)