Day 3 - Woods Hole Shelter (Friday)

I was kind of tired yesterday even tho it was only an 8 mile hike. I have had to tape up both big and little toes at lunch time today. the left food toes had already developed blisters but I did catch the right ones before blisters. After I got my tent up, my chores done and I ate, I just laid on my sleeping bag to read. Like I said yesterday, I visited the bon fire briefly, then hit the hay. I woke up once to a brief shower and got up and felt all along both edges of my shelter to make sure everything was under cover and staying dry. Then right back into my bag and to sleep.

The morning was typical and Sherpa waited for me to get packed up. We hit the trail about 0820. today's plan is to go 12 miles to the Woods Hole shelter. It was a tough day. My toes hurt bad every down hill. A few miles from the shelter, I stopped at an unnamed gap with a stream. I soaked my feet (oh the bliss of icy cold water!) and put my shoes and socks back on. Then realized my right big toe hurt. OK, take out my pad, sit down and pull off boot and sock. Turns out the sock toe seam slipped down over the bottom edge of the tape and wore a hole in my toe. No wonder it hurt. So I dug out my sports tape and taped more of the toe. Two guys we've been seeing in the shelters, a father/son team, have been yo yo'ing on the trail with me all day. Sherpa pulled ahead after lunch. Anyway, they stopped at the stream too. The dad has a bad knee and the son, a bad ankle. I'm wondering if they'll drop out tomorrow an Neel's Gap. I may have to also due to the toes. I'll study the map for tomorrow's terrain.

I haven't seen Tiger Bomb or Katahdin Kid all day. Haven't heard from any of the passing hikers about them either. Hope they're OK>

Today I saw a couple of new flowers in addition to the last 2 day's list. One, a small bloom, daisy-like on a 3 inch tall plant. The other a yellow buttercup shaped bloom, also on a short plant. I also saw a black bird, about robin size, with orange breast and white dots on its wings. I'll have to look it up when I get home. (I've looked it up and the closest I can see in my copy of the North American Wildlife book is that it was a Rufous Sided Towhee). I got to Woods Hole just after 5pm. I think I was suffering from dehydration cause it's hotter than I'm used to (in the 70's all 3 days). We also did a lot of climbing today. I drank 3 liters of water on the trail but arrived at the shelter with headache and nausea. I sat and rested, finishing off my water before setting up for the night. I still haven't got an appetite but I manage to get supper down. We're all in the shelter tonight. Sherpa has been in contact via cell phone with her spouse, George. He's providing daily weather reports. How helpful is that! Anyway, we're crammed in here as tight as we can get it so as few as possible have to pack up wet tents.