Today is a long day and a new record for us - 20.7 miles.
It is a really hot day . We stop for an early lunch at 10.30am at Tom Floyd Wayside Shelter. Soon after the shelter Sanman caught up with us, and we walked with him until we reached the highway. He planned to leave the trail and go into Front Royal - it was too hot to hike. So we yogi-ed off him. This is a technique on the trail whereby hungry thru hikers make other hikers, day walkers and car drivers give their food to the AT hikers 'of their own free will'. You don't blatantly ask for it - you have to be more subtle. Sanman relinquished 6 packets of electrolytes and 3 fresh peaches. He didnt need them as he was going into town. The peaches were a wonderful surprise.
We stop for an early dinner at Denton Shelter - which has its own solar shower. What luxury! There is a group of male hikers here - all in their 20s and 30s - all talking loudly and full of testosterone trying to outdo each other. We introduce ourselves. The loudest one says to me ' don't bother learning my name as you won't see me again - I do 40 miles a day'. And what do you know - we had the misfortune of crossing paths with him every day for the next week, as he kept on disappearing into towns to get drunk.
We struggle to make the last 5 miles to the shelter and when we arrive on dusk it is already full with a whole company of boy scouts. We squeeze our tent into a small space on the edge of the campsite. A group of teenage boys in a tent about 30 metres away is yelling their heads off competing with each other to tell the most outrageous stories. I stop by their tent to let them know that I particular enjoyed one of the stories - deathly silence after that!
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