Derrick Earls, More Heart than Scars tackle the AT together and in Spirit!: Day 59, July 13, 2014

I left Tumbling Run Shelter at 8:30 a.m. I had to drink 2 liters of water before leaving camp and also pack out 2 liters. The nearest water would be 10 miles from camp.

I made it to Caledonia State Park. My plan was to enjoy the pool and take a shower. It was $5 for the pool, shower, laundry in the shower and outlets. The first thing I saw was the Water slide! Boo yah! I was so excited! I went to the shower room and lathered up with hand soap. Yes we can be hiker trash, but you have to always be resourceful :)! I washed my clothes in the shower and dirt continuously fell out of my clothes and socks. I wiped down the shower and hung my clothes on the fence to dry. I went for the water slide and that was my appearance to the pool! It was awesome but chilly. Being a big kid on the AT is one of the most amazing things to enjoy. I mean think about it, kids are always having fun, and we as adults need to be big kids more! It was overcast much of the day. I laid my sleeping pad and sleeping bag out and began blogging. The sun peaked out at 2:45 p.m. which was crucial. I kept a pair of clothes dry but was mentally preparing to dry my clothes in the bathroom hand dryer if need be. The sun came out and all my clothes dried out.

Lots of other hikers strolled in and I left at 7 p.m. when the pool closed. We heard about a vegetarian trail magic that was .2 miles further still in the park. I arrived and the Church group was amazing. They had been there since 9 a.m. They had four grills going since they arrived and grilled veggie burgers, baked potatoes and corn. When I arrived they still had blessings of corn, humus, gluten free chips, cherry tomatoes, carrots, celery, salad, pineapple, coconut milk, granola, etc. All was organic and from Whole Foods. They sodas and all were made with real sugar and were from whole foods as well. No corn syrup, etc. they also had 12 volt drill batteries to charge phones, weight scales, veggie recipe books, 3d maps of the trail with 3d goggles, they had the freakin works.

We stayed til 8 p.m. and a nasty storm began rolling in. We gave back my helping Ray Sterner and his wife load up. Ray was a neat guy that worked at the Maryland John's Hopkins applied physics lab. He was also an amateur astronomer and told me about the time he met the guy who discovered Pluto which then was a planet. He told me more stories about his awesome professional experiences he had with military research and other cool interesting projects. They thanked us endlessly for helping them load and we thanked them tons as well. It was just a continuous grateful relationship for all parties. They left us with breakfast of apples and juices. We stealth camped on the picnic tables to avoid the wild storm. We had planned to hike 2.2 more miles to avoid the storm, but knew staying in the pavilion was our best option. Stealth camping is when you tent camp or in our case throw out sleeping pads and bags where you "weren't suppose to." However, you have to think smart and utilize self preservation to stay safe, etc. in this case it was to take our chances with a ranger asking us to leave.

The pavilion was large and we were in the back. The ranger did a drive by at 11:30 p.m. and he either didn't see us or acted like he didn't see us so we could stay safe. Some other hikers told us the next morning they were asked to leave their pavilion and continue on. So maybe we lucked out :)!

Approximately 10+ AT miles hiked.