Hiking with new friends is a great way to make 13+ miles go quickly. Today I hiked with friends I made while zeroing at the hostel yesterday, Rolling Stone and Mallory. We hiked separately for the long uphill that started our day (me dragging up the rear of course). At the top of a climb was a great campfire set up right next to the trail. Someone had piled huge rocks to make chairs where you could sit, lean back, and relax. That is just what we did. We sat, had snacks, and just got to know one another better. Mallory is 25 and is hiking the AT before she gets married and settles down. Rolling Stone is 60 and hiking in honor of someone he lost. Every hiker out here has a story to share.

We spent the afternoon hiking together over rocky trail and filling in the details of our lives for each other (where we are from, what we do, etc). It is a great way to pass the time and get to know each other.

When we made it to the shelter, we cooked dinner together. Each of us using our own little camp stove to prepare our gourmet meals of rehydrated something. This shelter had homemade pack hangers all across the front of the shelter (never seen this before). They consisted of a piece of cord with a stick tied at the end to hang your bag. In addition each cord had some sort of can or lid tied up higher on the cord. We decided the shelter had a big mouse problem if people had made these (there were 7 of them). We decided to set up our tents/hammock at a campsite back down the road. I’m very glad we did because the day after, I heard from one of the other hikers that a woman hiker woke up to a mouse chewing on her hair! Eww! Gross!

After we all set up camp and hung our food, we each went into our individual tents. It was a long day and I don’t know about everyone else, but I was asleep very quickly.