Samwise Hikes the Appalachian Trail! - Trail Journal -
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August 4, Hemlocks Shelter - mile 1494.2

What a day it's been! The day began with the most intense thunderstorm I've ever been in, & again I was incredibly glad to be in the shelter. From 6 to 8AM, the storm raged all around us - in face, we were IN the middle of storm. Lightning nearly burned our eyes & when the thunder rolled, the walls & floor vibrated like crazy. We all started to wonder if we would get hit by lightning & what would we do if so? Luckily we remained safe & dry, though. The rain beat down harder than I've ever seen it rain, & I suspect we got about 4 inches in those couple of hours. I noticed as we left this morning that the completely dry creek bed we crossed on the trail coming in was now gushing with several inches of water & about 5 feet wide. In face, we've been crossing dozens of dry creek beds in CT & now MA & today everything was gurgling with water. What a change! It's almost like being in the desert when spring rains hit.

It never really did clear today, though it still hasn't really rained again, either. So far, it's the same three of us here tonight, myself & a couple who go by Madgi & Jua. We all made it a short day of 10 miles, as we had three long steep climbs today & with the rocks all wet, the miles went extremely slow. In fact, it took me 7 1/2 hours to get here- which means my pace was just over 1 mile per hour!

Speaking of climbs, I had just conquered the third one today - the steepest, toughest & rockiest one - & I was beat. I hadn't really eaten all day except for a quick lunch of an energy bar, otherwise I was not able to eat anything because it's too hard to climb & digest at the same time. Plus, I was "racing" the thunderstorms here so I didn't want to stop at all. Any way, I was feeling pretty down & tired when I ran into 4 day hikers, a dad with 3 boys. The dad was so thrilled to meet a "genuine thru-hiker" so that he could prove to the boys that people on this trail really do hike from Georgia to Maine. The fellas were absolutely flabbergasted. "1500 miles!" "How do you eat?" (with my mouth) "Do you had a car or something?" (nope, just my pack) And so on! Then they gave me a huge bag filled with all their snacks for the day that they hadn't eaten - plums, peaches, pretzels, chips & a pound cake. I promised I'd share with Madgi & Jua when we all got to the shelter tonight. So we've been having a feast. It continues to amaze me how easily a bad day can be turned around by the generosity & encouragement of strangers. What a wonderful thing!