Every day out here you learn something new. Sometimes you learn something practical like how the US military’s recommendation for how to ration a limited amount of water on a hot day is don’t ration it. Your body will do the rationing for you. Sometimes you learn a little trick like how to better lace your shoes to ensure your heels dont slip without crushing your toes. And sometimes, like today, you learn important pieces of AT lore. 

Today I learned that the hit children’s song “head, shoulders, knees and toes” was written when a thru hiker tried to describe to their friends where they were sweating from on a hot day. 

It didn’t even take a full mile today before sweat pooled and dripped from my head, shoulders, knees and toes (and my eyes and ears and mouth and nose). I jumped at one point, not sure what the movement I had seen out of the corner of my eye was. But then I realized it was just sweat dripping off my elbow and onto the ground. It wasn’t the hottest day but it was as humid as it’s ever been. At every stream I crossed, I filled my bottle with cold water and then dumped it on my head, trying to cool down for even a minute or two. 

And even as I sweat, I donned as much clothing as I could. I rolled my sleeves down, put on my bug net and pulled up my hood. Because the mosquitoes seemed to be loving this humid weather. And when the trail walked alongside a flowing river, the mosquitoes rejoiced and came out in full force. In the few minutes I walked without a bug net on, I ate my body weight in mosquitoes. 

So, between the bugs and the sweat, I was thrilled when the heavens opened up and it started to rain. I walked in the downpour, thrilled that the rain was washing away my two nemesises. 

I soon found myself sitting soaking wet, filling up my bottle at a cold spring when I met an Irish hiker named Rabbit. We chatted for a while when he told me that he was 4 or 5 days into his mission of “40 days til Mama K”. It was his mission to finish and summit Mount Katahdin in 40 days. When I asked if he had to be back for any reason, he said the answer was yes. He had to finish in time to start a 2 month canoe trip from the headwaters of the Mississippi all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. And if that wasn’t cool enough, he was doing it as part of an environmental project where he and the others would be doing the water quality tests that lost funding this year and sharing the results with local communities – helping them understand the results and what to do about it. Very cool!

The rest of the hike was sweaty and hilly but uneventful. Dad was at camp when I got there and, before the next round of rain started, we decided to hang out in the icy river right next door. 

We finished setting up camp and were 90% of the way through dinner when the storm started. We packed up as quick as we could and sprinted back to our hammocks and I’m now laying here listening to the rain come down and watching the puddles below me grow bigger and bigger. 

Key stats:

Miles: 14

Elevation gained: 3300 ft

Mile marker: 1487

Things that I’m thankful for as I see the puddles form below me: that I’m suspended from trees and not in a tent