4/27 Staying with a new friend

16 miles today, 643 miles N
Captains House

Last night was a cold cold night. Not because of the air temp but mainly because I loath to put on wet shirts. I kept my wet shirt to bed to dry it off with my body heat overnight. I did that quite successfully but at a cost of shivering as it wetted my sleeping bag. Then having to use my body heat to dry with that too. Really it isn't as bad as I make it sound, I still slept well and just had to make sure to eat a little something every time I awoke to keep the body stoked. By in the morning I was pleased to report that my shirt and sleeping bag were dry!
Over night though one reason I awoke so much was to natures call. Despite the fact that I had very little water to drink I managed to go 4 times! Arg! I made sure to drink plenty in the morning to make up for it but I am still perplexed where I was storing it before?
I woke up around 7AM to rain and decided that I would read my book and try to wait out the rain until 8:30. 8:30 came and still it was raining. I packed up and took down the tarp in the rain which was not as painful as it sounds but still not fun. What was painful was the rain ceased 15 minutes after I started hiking. Also when I broke camp I found the trail data I had lost in about a minute.
The next shelter was only 3 miles away and I had already done most of the climbing so it only took an hour or so. There was still fog in the air and when I crossed a set of power lines it looked like the wires went 100 feet and then simply disappeared into a wall of cotton. Along the way to the shelter I came across a box turtle in the trail and took some pictures of the armored fellow. At the shelter I took my time eating a hot breakfast(last nights dinner) and spreading my stuff out to dry in the breeze and sun. Johny Hand was there too waiting for the world to dry out before starting on the trail. During then Bowser caught up with me having push off from town that morning. He didn't need to dry out so he took off and I spent the rest of the day in pursuit. The bulk of the afternoon was done up on a ridgeline and I was ambling along slowly as I do after town days. Along the way I came across a astonishingly tame deer near the Allegheny Trail Junction. I swear I could have petted him. Usually I see deer mainly as tails.
It is very clear that around here one stands on the edge of earths crust. The ridge line for days has always had a slope to the right and cliff to the left. The trail runs along and frequently on top of the edge on limestone that used to lie 1000s of feet below when the land was a flat ocean.
The end of the day was supposed to be a steep decent followed by a steep climb going from on ridge to a river and back up to the next ridge line. At the river I came across a junction. Two miles ahead a bridge had gotten washed out a couple years ago and the replacement was not yet finished. As a result there was a on road bypass or if one didn't mind getting their feet wet and the water level was low one could ford the river crossing. I chose to do the later. Although I appreciate it that almost everything is bridged on the AT sometimes I think the trail is a little too built up and it is nice to have a "real" water crossing. Along the stretch of trail to the washed out bridge I came across trail magic, pops left in the river to cool and a note. On the note it mentioned that if one needed help they could cross the river and go to the grey house directly across and see Captain. As soon as I saw the name I knew I had to cross an pay a visit and say thank you and hi to the man who was so nice a few days back. The point I chose to ford was probably a bad choice as the water got very deep (hip level) suddenly 5 feet from the other bank soaking me from the waist down but I made it safely as the current wasn't very strong.
Captain was home and he welcomed me in. In the end I spent the night and we stayed up late talking about hiking, photography, and gear. I also got to pay back his kindness by fixing up a couple things on his new computer. I also took advantage of his internet access to order a hammock to shipped to me up the trail.
Thank you Captain!
I slept very restfully on his couch but I had an early morning coming up to make up for the last two short days.