Day 52 - 4/22

Daily mileage: 16.4
Total trail mileage: 654.7 (approx)
Starting location: Symms Gap Meadow
Ending location: Campsite after Wind Rock
Weather: partly cloudy all day, 42 degrees in the morning, 55-72
degrees during the day

I am at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.416254,+-80.500145

I have now completed over 30% of the trail!

I got up early this morning, but almost missed the sunrise. The sun
gets up too early nowadays; I can't compete. The sunrise was
surprisingly pretty good considering how cloudy it was last night.
Most of the clouds dispersed over night. All the trees in the meadow
are now in bloom.

There was unfortunately a stretch of rocks today. The fact that SOBOs
from last year were complaining in the logbook about them (including
one person who wrote, "Hey, Virginia. Pennsylvania called and want
there rocks back") makes me optimistic that this is the only section
of serious rocks between here and PA. They really slow me down as I
try not to hurt myself.

I made a food blunder. For part of breakfast yesterday at the motel
room (since I didn't want to walk back into town to get food), I
picked up some bagels and cream cheese. I don't know why as I can
barely tolerate cream cheese (I think I figured it would be easier to
handle unrefridgerated than butter). Well, it was ok yesterday
because I could heat up the bagels in the microwave. But, I decided
to take the leftover bagels with me intending to eat them this morning
for breakfast. I could barely do it. I forced down two of the bagels
but could not eat the third. Normally this wouldn't be that big of a
deal, but out here it means that I would need to carry the weight for
nothing until I could find a trash can. At lunchtime, I decided to
scrape off the cream cheese and add tuna, cheddar cheese, pepperoni,
and olive oil to the bagel. It was actually good. I wish I decided
to do that from the beginning.

Right now, I am planning on doing two long days followed by two short
days. The first short day will be spent playing around at McAfee Knob
and Tinker Cliffs, supposedly two of the nicest spots on the trail.
The second short day will be to get out to town relatively early. Of
course, this is subject to change.