30...nope, just 21 miles. 3 June

Got a reasonably early start, 0730. Finished the last of my water up, but there were a lot of streams coming up. I stopped at the first one, where I filled up several bottles so I wouldn't have to stop frequently. Apparently there was a cooler of trail magic around there, but I never saw it. 

Bugs were horrible today. Always are on humid days when it may rain, but also may not. Incredibly infuriating. I smacked myself in the face so many times. Ugh. Not pleasant. I have an insect repellent Buff coming in the mail, apparently. It can not get here soon enough. 

Stopped at the first shelter I came to, Rausch shelter. Had lunch there and generally just hung out, giving my feet a break. I was still planning on doing 30 miles at that point, and I didn't want to break my feet. Leaving the shelter I ran into Fiver. If I keep my mileage up it could be the last time I run into her, which is somewhat sad since she's very funny. 

Ran into Hard To Kill today. Hadn't seen him in forever. He was slackpacking since he lives in the area, and his dad would drop him off. The man is thin! He said he's lost 40 pounds already. He looked at me and said "You sure grew a beard."  It was almost surreal seeing him, especially after running into Stakes and Cliffwalker in the previous days. HTK told me that PA System had broke his foot (which I'd heard previously), and that he wasn't going to be able to do the 500 mile pilgrimage in Spain. I guess he's playing a lot of Xbox now. 

A few deer, and I think it was my first flock (?) of turkeys on the trail. Can't remember if I saw some others before or not. Pretty much it for the day. A couple of guys just getting off work gave me a bag of ice and a cold water, and HTK left me a Coke where he'd parked his car. Apparently the campsite a few miles back you can order pizza from. I'd pushed on though, until the rain hit right as I came upon a good campsite. So here I am, 9 short of what I wanted but dry. I'll take that. 

Probably my second favorite bridge on the trail. 

My favorite bridge on the trail so far (excluding zip lines).