May 24 - Jon's Hollow Shelter

Alien Monitoring Station

The guillotine 

From PJ:

So today will be the first full day it won't rain in a month. Pretty awesome.

I've been watching this thing by Ken Burns about America's National Parks. It's really cool. It's free on Amazon Prime.

[Catania told PJ about some of her own hiking plans]

That sounds like a good hike. I always like when we go through evergreens. It's like a whole different trail.

Well, I just finished lunch. I'm at Highcock Knob (I didn't name it). Will finish tonight at John's Hollow Shelter. Another 20 mile plus day.

***

This is gonna sound like a commercial, but I bought an Anker eternal battery charger off Amazon, and this thing is awesome. It was only $21 and it will fully charge my phone 5 times. It's small, too, and it only weighs 8 oz. It's great for hiking, but I will definitely use it when I'm done, too.

It will charge anything with a USB port, too. I charge my iPod as well.

It's much better than the solar charger I bought. I ended up sending that home. Even when it was sunny, that thing didn't work as advertised. Also the battery pack that came with it would barely charge my phone once.

The Anker is cool, too because it chargers quicker than a regular outlet. It takes less than 45 minutes to charge my phone once.

I should be on their commercial.

There were some kids jumping off this bridge. It was tempting, but I kept hiking. 

That is the James River.

Spiderwort

We did 21.7 miles, and I was done by 4:45. We cookin' with gas now.

That's why I like hiking with Patriot. He's a little younger, so he pushes the pace. I usually can't keep up with him but we always end up at the same spot.

He's got some friends coming this weekend, so we'll tone down the miles a little bit for three days.

Next week we hit the Shenandoah's, and it's basically flat from there to New Hampshire.

[Patriot] got the nickname because his gear just happened to be red, white, and blue. He didn't plan it that way.

And yes - I'm still Earnhardt. I did have Talladega Nights on my phone, but I decided to delete it to make space.

***

The best part about the AT is that there are no rules. Well, therea re just no lame bosses or anyone to enforce them.

***

It's funny. Out here even a crappy restaurant sounds really good. Even when I ate at Wendy's, it tasted really good. Although Wendy's was always better than BK and especially McDonald's.

I will not eat at either of those even if it was the only option.

I put Chic-Fil-A in a separate (non-fast-food) category...