6/30/18 Day 342 AT Day 102 Tenting near road to Branchville , NJ

Miles: 20.2 Steps: 35,041 Elevation Gain: 2,302 feet So freaking hot today! Another day over 100 and super humid. Makes for incredibly challenging conditions! One great thing right off the bat though: a nice gentleman gave us ice cold sodas! Thank you so much! I had my worst encounter with mosquitos by far on the trail today at Brink Road Shelter, bear the spring. I was assaulted by what seemed like thousands of mosquitos! They were relentless! And, of course, I had to use both hands to dip and fill water so they had open game on me. Super challenging! The heat was just crushing today! Drank 2 gallons of water and still thirsty. Shirt so wet you could wring it out. Kind of crazy conditions, really. We hit a road mid afternoon and headed quickly to a restaurant just off trail. Lovely air conditioning and tasty food awaited, so good! The Appalachian Trail spooks hikers a bit with so much access into the modern world... We started hiking again, but after only 100 yards we both looked at each other and said “we should get a hotel”. It was disgustingly hot. We wouldn’t sleep without it. I made a couple calls and we were whisked away to a cheap hotel within 20 minutes. The hotel was pretty disgusting. That must have been why there were so many “ no refund” signs in the office? We made the best of it and really enjoyed the AC! Pretty funny experience, overall.