After making camp I texted Yancey Gill, who lives near the Lick Branch TH and was holding a resupply box for me. I gave him my ETA for being at the TH tomorrow, asking how I could retrieve the box. And also, as he does hiker shuttles, that I was thinking about bailing on this hike if the weather did not cool down some.
He replied back just to text him from the TH and he would be there in a few minutes with the box. And then, that if I wanted to bail, I could just walk a mile down Herrod’s Creek to the highway and he could get me from there.
I turned in but did not sleep much. My camp was not far from some sort of ATV park. Roaring engines and blasting music continued until well after midnight. And once again the night stayed warm and I slept shirtless on top of my quilt.
I saddled up in the morning, intending to hike the 9 miles to Lick Branch and then decide if I wanted to keep hiking. But halfway up the climb over the 500-foot ridge before Indian Creek I just stopped, drenched in sweat once again.
I was done with this hike. Just simply done. It was too hot for too long and there was no relief imminent in the forecast. I expected a fair amount of hardship and suffering. That is inevitable on any long hike. But i didn’t expect to be constantly on the edge of heat exhaustion day after day. It was all misery and very little fun and I just couldn’t see the point of hiking any more. Done.
So I turned around, hiked back down to the creek (rather, the creek bed, it was dry) and then down to the road, greatly relieved to be shut of the heat and the sweat and the bugs.
Postscript:
I hated to do this, but it was the right choice. The heat continued for another week. Then it rained 12 inches in 2 days. And then got hot again. Glad I missed all this.