Day 41: gimpy

Miles: 10
Water: 3
Suspect water: 0 so far

Woke up early today on the promise of heavy rain. Was up at 5, checked the weather, they canceled the rain, so I went back to sleep. I slept like a rock until nine, which is pretty late on the trail. I thought about taking a zero or nearo since I had such a late start, but I opted to stick with my plan of doing ten today.

I talked to the battle axe dude due to popular demand. He was staying and taking a zero at the river shelter. Turns out the axe is a throwing axe. He got it from cold Steel or cold iron, I forget. He highly recommends the site for all your sharp archaic weapon needs. That is also where he got his Viking long sword (not carried on him). I asked him to throw the axe for me but he didn't see any good targets. He said that carrying it was part of his ancestral heritage. He comes from a long line of frisbee and axe flinging hippies I guess. His grandfather Thor Rainblossum could hurl a pole arm while leading a drum circle.

Once I started hiking I noticed a pain in my calf muscle. I must have done some damage on that near vertical rock descent yesterday. After an initial flat bit along the histaonic river (close enough) the trail was determined to show me annoying peaks of Connecticut. Nothing tall enough for any vistas, and what vistas I did see I just walked by, no time for extra steps when you are in pain.

I ate lunch, and there was a tree frog with nerves of steel who sat next to me the whole time. After lunch I still had 6 miles to go. With the pain in my leg slowly increasing as the aleave wore off.

After lunch I talked to an infuriating happy through hiker. Just laying on the side of the trail in some leaves. He was writing a blog post. Apparently he blogs three times a day and has 3k followers. Including a bunch of paraplegics who do what they call virtual hiking. Which is pretty cool. I left him still smiling happily laying in tree filth.

I hiked along side a mountain stream so rugged I wanted to make terrible beer.

Then I passed a camping site. This demonstrates the flawed thinking that can arise from goals. Instead of bailing on the day early and camping there. To maybe take a short day to the shelter tomorrow. I convinced myself to push on, up another hill. I'm not sure why I did this. Maybe to keep my miles at ten per day minimum. Maybe because that's what I had decided the day before. Maybe because I wanted to see if I could push through on the strained muscle. The better choice was probably to stop. But perhaps the better skill to cultivate is pushing through.

Up another hill, through a narrow crack in a spilt boulder I was forced to make a big step upward, cementing the strain on my calf, and leaving me limping the last mile or so to the shelter. At least I got to listen to the radio the last mile.

The water at the shelter is down a hill and into a swamp. So the mosquitos are crazy thick here. The water supply is a slow swampy stream. I saw a giant set of crawfish pinchers on a rock. No doubt the prey of some racoon.

There is a German couple here noisily eating ramen as I wait for my grits to soften. And happy blogger guy just showed up. So at least I'm faster than him. I might be a lazy jerk and just set my tent up in the shelter tonight. I don't think anyone else is coming and I feel like I earned some lazy jerk today.

Now my question is what do I do tomorrow? Do I stay at the buggy shelter and through the rest of my food? Do I find a hotel or hostel and head there tomorrow? It is time to resupply. Most of this depends on where I am. And I haven't looked yet. Time to eat my grits and snickers bar. It will no doubt be easier to work it all out on a full stomach.