Replay Day 35: Keeping pace

I touched on July 14 earlier, when I talked about keeping pace with some faster hikers.

I didn't leave Kent until about 11:30 a.m. [trail towns tend to suck you in; I'm still in Salisbury [library] and it's after 10:30 a.m.].

After lunch at the top of the climb out of Kent, I met up with Trigger, Baltimore Andy [who apparently hangs out at Nola, the Frederick cafe where I go sometimes multiple times a day, about once a week. Small world!] and Blessed, who I hadn't met before but who is a 29-year-old youth pastor.

We came to a part of the trail where the Housatonic River meets a narrow sandy beach between the trees only a step away. Blessed did his best to convince us to go swimming, but Trigger and Andy weren't up for it and I was hesitant. The water
by the bank was still but a rapid current, about 20 feet wide, coursed through the middle, and there was no telling how deep that part was. Blessed jumped straight in and rode the current.

After a bit I waded in. My feet sank in the muck and I saw crayfish all over the bottom. I crouched on the rocks at the current's edge and eased myself in. The current whisked me downriver until I stroked out at an eddy, about 40 yards away. It was like a water ride. I went back for more.

Blessed found a couple of severed fishing lures meanwhile and kept one for himself and gave the other one to me. Now it's on my pack as flare, like a green, dangling badge [with a hook - I've already punctured my thumb once] that says, "I swam in the Housatonic"]. Picture of that later.

The rest of the day felt like soccer conditioning. We hit what we estimated was a 3 mph pace straight up the next hill and sustained it for the duration of several hundred feet of up. Repeat twice, and Blessed was literally wringing sweat out of his shirt. I'm sure I could have done the same with my bandanna, which I wore Rambo-style to keep the waterfall of eyebrow sweat from getting to me.

Camp: Caesar Brook Campsite, in tent.
Dinner: Noodles + hot dog + hot habanero cheese.
Stream bath? Yes! With Dr. Bronner's. Was cold.