Tumbling Down Shelters 26Sep05 Day102

Rain was in the forecast today. It was supposed to be related to hurricane Rita. So it was with no great surprise when it started sprinkling early this afternoon. I had stopped at a grocery store that claimed "long term resupply" and was very dissappointed in the lack of selection. I did manage to find enough stuff to get me to Harper's Ferry. I thought I was doing very good, 10 miles in about 4 hours. The next 10 was the problem. After 1.4 miles of road walking (to the store) my feet and back were shot. After a few trail miles my feet started really complaining then my shoes started rubbing on one foot. Then the rain. At least I made it in okay time and before the worse part of the storm. The rain has stopped and now the trees are just dripping.

I passed a very nice shelter today. The caretaker obviously takes a lot of pride in maintaining that shelter. I came out from a thicket of what Iam assuming to be mountain laurel (the book mentions them to be dense in this area) to see a hanging basket of flowers, two shelters with a roof between them covering a picnic table plus a bench and a very nice privy. I really wanted to stay but alas it was only 10:00. This is another site with 2 shelters, a snoring and non-snoring according to the signs and on the privy is a doorbell. I like caretakers with a sick sense of humour. Sounds like it just started raining again.