Day 80; Sun July 15 2007

(Stud) We reached the official halfway point of the trail today without fanfare. I do believe that had Dwight not stopped at the post marking the 1,325 mile point, I would have walked right by it as I was in my normal daydream mode. There was a journal in a metal box there and I looked through to see the names of folks we have met along the way--many several days or more in front of us now: Second Hand (Mike), Tattoo Joe, Thirsty Boots, No Car, Chris (now Snowman), Cyote, Galahad, Voyager, Riley, Speedstick, Yetti, Hell on Wheels and Stormin Norman. But surprisingly, names of folks we assumed were in front of us were missing--like Lucky Joe, Troll and Oblivious. We also noted that, in general, there were a lot less through hikers in front of us than we'd been led to believe. Not that everyone would stop to sign the register--but we felt most would--and although I didn't count the names, I'd estimate there were less than 30 thru-hikers that had signed in before us.

To celebrate reaching the halfway point, we hitched 8 miles into Chester to eat dinner. We got picked up by a local couple that first drove by, then turned around and came cack and got us. They dropped us off at a local burger joint and we got a burger, fries and soft serve dip cones. We first tried to order an 8 piece bucket of chicken (I had talked Dwight down from 12 pieces) but they said it would take 1/2 hr to make. Then Dwight ordered a jumbo burger, and that was going to take 20 minutes, so we settled for the regular size burger just to get the food faster.
Riley came in while we were there and sat down and ate with us.

The hitch out took longer, but just at dusk a young mother in a compact car, with her 6 or 7 yr old daughter in back, gave us a lift. She said she picked up hikers last week hitching into Chester after dark. "If I didn't pick them up, who would have?" What a trusting person.

About halfway back to the trailhead, the little girl pinched her nose, and with a wrinkled up face said: "Mommy, something stinks in here". She got no reaction from her mom who was engaged in conversation with Dwight in the front seat. As kids tend to do, she repeated herself, and I said: "Sorry, that's probably me". But she repeated herself again a few more times getting louder and whinier, at which point her mom finally glanced in the rearview mirror and calmly said: "Honey, they're hikers". This answer apparently satisfied the child, and she went back to watching a movie on her portable DVD player without another word.

Back at the trail head, we hiked on a few miles until we reached Clear Springs. We washed up a bit, found a flat spot a few 10ths of a mile down the trail and called it a day. The new Smartwool socks my mom sent in the Beldon mail drop, which I've only worn for 2 days, are already full of dirt. And my feet are filthy black. Unavoidable on this trail. Somehow you hope the new socks will act like a talisman--keeping away all the dust and dirt the trail coughs up. Dare to dream.

I think we hiked around 26 miles today.