Miniature Disasters

Miniature Disasters
July 7 Mile 1185 - Started the day on that same mining mountain. We passed an old family cemetery that had two graves of immigrates from England. Both had died in a mining accident in the 1850's.
Finally got a phone signal about 5 miles in and had a message from Flute that she had Lyme's Disease. I were so glad the doctors found the cause of her illness, but hated to hear it was Lyme's. They said it could take as much as 3 weeks to recover. Luckily they caught it early. We have had many conversations with her today about options to finish the trail and what we could do to help. The bottomline is that she needs to get better and then make a plan. The day was full of angst. What happened to Flute could have easily happened to us, and still might.  The rest of the day can be summed up by the following.

"The intoxication of my sweat draws the mosquitos to me, gnats continue their research and development of my ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. I fight through a forest that has been taken over by poison ivy. The rocks are paid to catch a hiker off balance enough to brush the poison. Sticks are decoys for snakes here. This place could easily be a mistaken for a jungle instead of PA. I know I'm not dreaming because my feet are throbbing in pain. This is a day in the life of a thru-hiker."


Country Mouse and Shadow still NOBO (North Bound)