'at warn't no fifteen mile

I was wondering why yesterday's walk took so much longer than anticipated, and the answer is, partly, that it was 2.3 miles longer than I had reckoned. I normally rely on MapQuest to give me an accurate calculation of the shortest available route from place to place, and just now MQ put the shortest route at 17.3 miles, not the 15 miles I had guesstimated the other day. I'm also sure that my walking speed was significantly slower as the sun bore down, the miles wore on, and my feet began to scream. On a good day, I do about 2.7 mph with the pack on (3.2 mph unencumbered); yesterday, at a guess (maybe I should do the math and quit guessing), I was probably doing closer to 2.3 mph.

I arrived at the campground after sunset; most of the tent-pitching occurred in the dark, but that was all right: I knew what to do this time around, and actually did a better job of it, securing the footprint properly and hooking the lateral guys that give the inner tent a bit more space (see picture and compare with previous shot of my feet).

A very nice campground volunteer helped me find the hiker/biker spot; she said she'd been expecting me after I had called the campground early yesterday morning. I also met a grandmother from Montreal who was traveling with her family; she thought it would be a hoot for me to speak with her 12-year-old grandson, who might take an interest in my travels. If I see the family today, I'll be sure to talk with them.

I set up my tent and snuck out to the pavilion that sits near the entrance. There, I plugged in the BlackBerry for a partial recharge and managed to upload a single photo thanks to the poor signal: the pic of my Camelbak's O-ring coming off. It was dark and I was worried about freaking out any passersby who might see a weird glow coming from within the pavilion, so I hunkered down behind the pavilion's sink/counter to block me from the main road. While the photo was ever-so-slowly uploading to the blog, I came out from behind the counter, went in front of the pavilion, lay on one of the many picnic tables, and stared at the magnificent starscape overhead. I saw one shooting star and one satellite; the satellite was tiny and I couldn't look directly at it, but it was visible whenever I looked at a point a few degrees away from its trajectory. No one passed by while I was on the picnic table, so I spent a half-hour in relative peace as the cosmos wheeled majestically overhead.

I need to keep charging the BlackBerry; I also need to do laundry, write a prospective CouchSurfing destination or two, write my manager Alan, blog about yesterday's adventure (some of which I've already talked about), go back down the road to get some food, and keep on resting my poor feeties. Doesn't seem like a lot, but you'd be surprised how much time it all takes.


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