July 15 - 8PM - Fort Relief, a disappointment

A view of Jo-Mary from inside my hammock IN THE RAIN . I had another nice poop today in Fort Relief , the famous two holer here at Antlers campsite. Technically there was supposed to be a cribbage board built into the throne --no such luck the only thing there was the campground journal. It is raining hard but I seem to be staying pretty dry. And comfortable! I'm getting better at this hammock thing . I've become almost a shelter snob in that I would rather sleep in it under a tarp in the rain than in a leanto. At one point today I was hopping up and over and around rocks roots bottomless mud pits and marveling at how my guide book could call this level terraIn. I mentioned to one NOBO it was more like dancing than hiking. He didn't get it but he's in top shape doing 25 miles a dAy and focusing on getting up and down Katahdin so he can catch his Bangor flight home . If you close your eyes and just surround yourself with the rain on the tarp you can float right away…. Whoa !!! I seem to bE surrounded by SOBO's, some better prepared than others. One at the last shelter that I walked past on my way here didn't know how to get the water out of their platypus bladder…. One fellow didn't realize it was going to take him 10 days to get to Monson, he brought food for 6. Others much better prepared: Mav recently retired army will do well and understands what two weeks of conditioning on the trail means, Ole from Canada has great stories of hiking the Camino Real older and slower but at least He'll know when to go home. Somehow I've hooked up with Forrest and Forrester. Forrester is a flip flopped who got as far as Penn. then had to get off for family then decided to get back on Katahdin to be able to see all his mates finish up as he goes SOBO . And Forrest is a Georgia fellow with more grey than me. He seems to think he's walking home. I gotta figure cold will set in before he gets there but who knows. These last two are the guys in the campground. They are going to go 16 miles tomorrow- I thought I might but changed my mind. They'll walk past one shelter at 8 miles and go on to the next. I'm going to take some time fishing in the morning and only do the 8 miles to the near shelter- HA campsite. TTFN
72° Heavy Thunderstorms
45.708° N, 68.8535° W