(Daily Mi: 10.9) Hard rain all night. Piper's bivy tent failed, and he was soaked to the bone. The Baptists were pretty wet as well. Had a little set to when they began washing their breakfast dishes in the water source.

The thing with Piper was pretty serious. Everything he owns got soaked. It was not that cold (in the high 40s) but Piper has no cold weather gear, and what he does have was uselessly wet. He was shaking like a leaf and not in a completely right state. Rocky and I had to work to convince him that the best thing to do was to get hiking. We waited for him to pack up his wet gear and then hiked together some five miles on to the camp store at Pine Grove Furnace State Park (the nominal AT half-point) some five miles on. The sun came out as we hiked. We got snacks at the store, and Piper stretched out his gear to dry on a lawn in front.

Earl Shaffer, the first thru-hiker (1948), died yesterday (?). The park is not far from Earl's hometown (York, PA) and a man who went to highschool with him brought a newspaper and yearbook.

Got to the shelter late (didn't get Piper out of camp this morning until almost 11 am). Rocky came in about an hour behind me, but Piper never showed. A thru-hiker named Prudence came in at about 7 pm from like a hundred miles back. He hadn't seen Piper. Everyone looking forward to Boiling Springs: My first drop box, a shower, perhaps even laundry (I do stink).