Day 100

Day 100 – June 15 – 21 miles – Clarks Ferry Shelter to Mile Marker 1172.5

It was one of those days where not much happened.  In the morning we had several views.  One was at a powerline and the other was at a place called Table Rock.

At Table Rock we spotted our first rattle snake.  It was coiled up under a rock.  It didn’t seem to mind that we were there too much.

It was another hot day.  The water sources were a little more spread out than usual so we made sure to stop and fill our water at each one.  One of the streams was very orange.  We hoped it was from a high amount of iron in the rocks and not some toxic waste runoff.  Either way, we decided to skip that one.

At one point we passed a campsite that had built in furniture.  Stoat and I decided to stop there for a snack.  The chairs weren’t that comfortable…

At one point, Stoat and I met a Triple Crowner named Joker and Trail Angel Mary, who insisted on giving us hugs despite of warnings of smelling terrible.  They were super nice.  They gave us soda and we talked to them a little while.

Not long after meeting them, we began too hear automatic gunfire coming from a little ways off.  Soon we began to hear heavier weaponry.  I don’t know if it was mortars or tanks fire or something else.  Whatever it was, I didn’t want to be anywhere near it.  Stoat and I wondered aloud if a war had started while we were out in the woods.  I checked google earth on my phone and was relieved to see that there was a military base nearby.  They must have been having one heck of a war simulation going on.  The gunfire and explosions went on for hours.  We became concerned about any of the hikers that were hiking the trail to recover from PTSD. Hopefully they were nowhere nearby.

Near the end of the day my feet began to hurt.  The trail had a lot of small stones embedded in it.  There wasn’t a way to avoid them as they filled up the entire trail.

At the end of the day the Tramily wound up stealth camping near a water source at mile marker 1172.5.  Flashfire and Zeus were already there and they had a fire going to wars off insects.  Most of the conversation was split between the topics of the gunfire and the upcoming 501 shelter.  A shelter where we could have pizza delivered.

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