Saturday, 5/16

AT Miles = 18.3 / 755.4
Other Miles = 0.2 / 30.5
Total Miles = 18.5 / 785.9

It was warm and very muggy last night. Given that, I didn't expect to sleep very well, yet I did.

I was up and out early this morning. I always seem to be the first one up in the morning so I have to tip toe around eating breakfast and packing up.

Soon after leaving the shelter the trail crosses the BRP two times. At the second crossing an older couple were pulled over at the overlook and we chatted for a few minutes. They were very impressed when I told them I had hiked over 700 miles, and they asked to take my picture. See, everyone really does get their 15 minutes of fame!

The rest of the day was hike, hike, hike. It was pleasant enough, just nothing special to report. In this section the BRP swings east to go to Peaks of Otter, while the AT stays west, so I wasn't crossing the road during the day.

I stopped for first and second lunch — I eat lunch twice every day when I am hiking — and when I left from the 2nd lunch around 2:00PM I could hear thunder in the distance. It was getting closer and closer. I was still 5 miles from the shelter, and the first 4 of those 5 were a steady uphill. I hiked quite hard — it was very sweaty work — and managed the 4 uphill miles in 1:30 and the last dowbhill mile in 20 minutes, expecting the skies to open up every minuite. Well, the rain still hasn't arrived.

There is a weekend hiker named Andrew here tonight. After I cleaned up, set up my hammock, and did other chores, we were sitting and chatting when another man walked around the shelter from an unexpected direction. Apparently there is a side trail from the BRP (about 0.3 miles away) to the shelter, and John asked us if we would like some trail magic. Well, of course we would! So John and Andrew both walked back to John's car parked on the BRP, and a few minutes later came back with a two burner Coleman stove, a soft-sided cooler, and a backpack. John then proceeded to fire up the stove, warm up the griddle, and cook us eggs and sausage and pancakes. He also had a full gallon of orange juice. John kept cooking just as long as we could keep eating. Being the only thru-hiker here, I easily ate Andrew under the table. Then we all sat around and chatted about this and that. What a wonderful way to spend the evening! Thanks, John.

I asked John why he was doing this and he told us that his son, Snakebite, hiked the trail a coujple of years ago and had told him about all the wonderful things people did for him, so John was tgrying to pay some of that forward. A great guy.

Andrew is just here for the night, but he said he packed some extra food just so he could give it to any threu-hikers he met, so he gave me a bag of gnocchi along with some fresh cheese and sauce mix. That sounds like a great meal and I will eat that tomolrrow night.

So I had been planning to hitch iknto the little town of Glasgow on Monday to resupply, and have been worried because all that is listed in the book for Glasgow is a small convenience store and a Dollar General. But now I think I have enough food to wait until Tuesday when I can hitch into Buena Vista, which has a real grocery store.

Monkeywrench
Allen Freeman
allen@allenf.com
www.allenf.com
allenf.blogspot.com