Midnight on the Appalachian Trail: A good day.

I can't think of the appropriate word for how good a day today has been. Didn't start out that way. Started cold.

Last night was cold. Below 20 degrees. Beandip and I were both in our summer bags, rated as 30 degree bags. Her mum had just arrived from Australia, where it's much warmer. We were not particularly set up for this situation. I wore four layers, plus my silk liner. Not enough. We were all huddled for warmth in the shelter corner, and Beandip and I were shivering, so I pulled my poncho out and covered us with that, too. Helped a little, but it was just a miserably cold night. Not a lot of sleep.

At 0700 Napoleon woke us up when he came hiking in. He'd hurt his ankle pretty bad, but still walked 34 miles on it yesterday. Apparently the pain woke him up this morning so he figured he might as well start hiking. The one thing everyone says about Napoleon is that he's crazy. Now I do, too.

The Aussie ladies got up sometime around then and cooked breakfast and packed up, but Beandip, because she's awesome, threw her sleeping bag on top of me while they ate. First time I was warm in forever. It was a sad moment when she finally packed it away. I still refused to poke my head out of my bedroll, but I said bye when they left.

I did, of course, eventually get up. I was roughly planning on 18 miles today, which would get me within striking distance of Partnership shelter, where you can have pizza delivered (really) and catch a bus to Marion. Before I left Princess, Rocketman, and Ranger came through. They're good people.

Today was a really great day of hiking. Only problem is I hurt my foot yesterday. Feels like a bruise on the outside edge. Hurts in rocky stuff, which we had some of. But it's not debilitating, just painful. Ran into Cowboy again, a guy who was section hiking. He works in California in the summer and the Virgin Isles in the winter. Guy has it made.

Met several other section hikers and Hawk, another thru-hiker. Pretty much everyone was headed for Trimpi shelter. When I got there, I gave Beandip her rain cover, which she left behind this morning. There was a crowd, a good crowd, but still a bunch of people. I decided to move on, since I needed to resupply in Marion and wanted to get back to the trail on the same day.

Beautiful. This was around 1800, and the next mile was crazy gorgeous. And so green. Nothing to imply that a couple days ago there was a blizzard. About a mile and a half in, came across some trail magic. Food and drink was mostly gone, but I grabbed some minor first aid items I thought I should have. A flyer caught my eye, the church was having a Revival, this week, and the service was at 1900. It was 1830ish, I had just prayed for a place to spend the night, so I figured okay.

Started to walk the .08 miles, and got picked up by Brian and Rita, a lovely retired couple who ran the trail magic there. We went to church, where I heard a pretty good service. Reminded me of the church I went to on Little Cowan. Love that church. They treated me like family here, I feel like I got just as many handshakes as the preacher. Also talked with Jerry, who started the trail magic here. Another really great guy. If I get the chance I will definitely return.

I am currently in the guest bedroom of Brian and Rita's stunning log cabin home. They retired and moved out here. They are taking me in to Marion tomorrow morning for resupply, are feeding me, gave me a shower and let me do laundry. Have I said how awesome they are yet? Even more importantly, they let me use their phone to call my wife and tell get happy belated birthday. Apparently my awesome sister was all over that, though, and decorated our place while my wife was away, covering the house with balloons and signs. Glad someone is being awesome. That's it for tonight. Too many blessings had overloaded me, and I'm falling asleep.