Got a late start today. Got a shower (and then back into the same dirty clothes, but feel much better anyway). Got some Shoe Goo to try to fix my shoes. (The right shoe started to delaminate at the front after repeatedly jamming it into rocks on the Blood Mountain ascent yesterday.) I also broke one of my poles yesterday (the top part pulled out of the lock attaching it to the middle movable piece), and was resigned to having to treat it delicately until I could get near an REI for an exchange (or buy new poles and ship these home), but one of the staff at Mountain Crossings overheard me talking to another hiker about it, and found some superglue to temporarily repair it. That seemed to have done the trick, though, and I left Neel Gap around 11:30 (and about five minutes up the trail was almost regretting not getting lunch).
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Good log,
Good log.
You look like a good log.Oh, wait. You're a seesaw.
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Last night, I set my tent up for the first time outside, which I'm sure looked rather amusing to onlookers. I'm not quite convinced I have it staked correctly, since the connection between the tent and the stakes seems rather flimsy, but it's still here in one piece.
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Thanks to the terrific lunch I had at Woody Gap, I reached Lance Creek early and with bountiful energy, so I decided to push on to Neel Gap. (While there are two shelters between Lance Creek and Neel Gap, the five miles before Neel Gap requires a bear canister, which I don't have, so stopping before Neel Gap was not an option.)
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Lunch at Woody Gap courtesy of a bunch of local hikers. Hot dogs, bananas, brownies, beans, soda, and water! Thanks so much!
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