Rod Hollow Shelter 30Sep05 Day106

It was so nice to wake up in a warm cabin. I did get very hot during the night and had to peel down and crack a window, but no complaints.

I stopped at Sam Moore shelter for a late lunch and had the pleasure of watching a red headed woodpecker tapping on a tree. He was big and acted like he had a nervous twitch.

I had a lady stop and chat with me. Her father was visiting from Honduras and it was there first time on the AT. So they were excited to meet a thru-hiker. She gave me a blueberry muffin and it was so good.

Today was 17 miles which included a trip through the roller coaster. The land claim here is so narrow, the trail has to go up then down a bunch of small peaks. The relentless up's and down's are hard. But I found the rocks are giving me more problems then the hills. It is very hard on the body to walk over the rocks, especially the small pointy ones. The Chef and The Critic obviously had it in them to do another 9 miles but I didn't so I fell behind. I am at the shelter now with a trio of weekenders. They tried to get a fire going and I helped it along. Now there is a nice fire going and everyone is in bed. What a waste. The water at this shelter is supposedly spring water but it smells terrible. I treated 1L and it still smells bad. At least it doesn't taste bad.