Day 76: Farewell Dallas!

Well, it definitely was NOT my most comfortable night of sleep ever. It was very warm in my tent, and I just didn't seem to be tired enough to sleep. I tossed and turned for a while, then I must've gotten a few hours in before waking up around 6:30. Thank goodness the morning was cool.

We had pop tarts for breakfast, and we broke down our tents and packed up. Four miles to go to meet back up with Kristi and Scott. The cool morning began to fade into a warm morning as soon as we started walking.




We passed a civil war battlefield that had a few information plaques to read. One Life is a Civil War buff and was very excited to be wandering through history. It's pretty hard to imagine what all went on here back then. A mile or so later, we caught Xan, Sandbagger and Neutron at the Back Pack Campsite, and we stopped for a break. They'd had a large group of campers there last night, too. But they had flush toilets and showers! I went and had a quick, rinsey shower (putting back on my gross, sweaty clothes, but it's better than no shower at all!), and charged my phone a bit. One Life took off with Q and Zack, and I chilled for another few minutes.

I left the guys and caught up with One Life as they were climbing the hill from Alt 40. The boys made a great effort in the last mile, and we finally made it up to the washington monument to find Kristi and Scott hanging out by the beautiful view. There was a great breeze up there! And lots of berries to pick!! Xan, Neutron and Sandbagger showed up for a snack and a break, then they were soon on there way. We'd catch up with them later on.







Kristi and Scott were going to take the boys and One Life to lunch in Boonsboro, and they very kindly invited me to come along. How could I say no?! We crammed all our people and packs into the car and made it to a wonderfully over-air-conditionned pizza place. We stuffed ourselves silly and had plenty of pizza left over.







Back to the monument to drop off me and One Life. While we chatted, TC showed up - I hadn't seen gin in a while! He had a slice of pizza while we said a long goodbye to the Dallas kids. Their visit was too short! But they had a great time and were clearly exhausted. I'm so glad I got to share that experience with them and with One Life.

Back to hiking?! Nah. We waved goodbye to the Texas car and took the extra pizza up to the lunch shelter (25 yards from the parking lot) and charged our phones, chatted with TC about trail gossip, and drank Gatorade. It must've been above 90, and it was humid. We waited till 4pm to leave, and by that time Chef (who is now going by "No Longer Chef" because there were too many "chefs") and Casper and Moped had caught up.




We began hiking with TC and crossed the I-70 footbridge to many honks brought on by many sweaty waves. We took a break at a shelter and I got water, then the three of us continued on. We got to Black Rock Cliffs where we enjoyed the view and a rest. We all decided that we probably wouldn't catch up to Xan/Neutron/Sandbagger tonight. Early day tomorrow...?

We made it to Pogo campsite and set up. Got water, made dinner, and ate as the light eft the sky. Moped showed up in almost darkness, and after a little web browsing, I am now in my tent blogging. It's warm again. Seems a TINY bit better than last night, but not by much. I do feel tired tonight though. I'm hoping to make tomorrow a good, solid, long day of hiking. This heat is supposed to break by Wednesday!!

Pennsylvania tomorrow...? State #7?!?
(10.7)


-- Posted from the trail...

Location:Pogo Memorial Campsite