Miles Hiked: 10.6
Miles Left: 2053.9
Ending Location: Wesser Bald Shelter

This morning was surprisingly very nice. It was chilly, but not too cold, and B and I had spent the night in the shelter so packing up was easy. Having space in the shelter is the nicest thing about getting away from our original group.

We’re supposed to get a pretty good storm tonight, but I don’t know if the weather has read that script yet as it went from sunny to cloudy and back to sunny all day. Because of the storm B and I decided to pull another 10+ mile day so we could end it in a shelter again. Both of us are starting to find our trail legs so it’s nice to be able to do higher millage days.

We met a trail angel today. He’s been camping out for the last 15 days in a tent with a wood stove, handing out soda and snacks to hikers and offering them a place to stay for the night. He’s retired and apparently travels around America doing this for the various trails. So far this season he said he’s seen around 48 through hikers so B and I made it an even 50. We both accepted a Coke and some cookies and chatted for a while before continuing on.

About halfway up the next mountain both B and I were regretting those Cokes as we were burping pretty much constantly. I guess that’s why you never see Olympic athletes chugging them before an event… As we were joking about that B got his foot caught in a branch and took a pretty nasty spill. Luckily he only bruised his shin but it gave him problems all day. To tally up our current injuries right now I have the issue with my thigh, and B has his shin and his back. The new sleeping pad helped him a bit last night but sleeping on the ground is still a big issue for him.

We encountered what was quite possibly the most unsafe lookout tower in America near the end of the day. Of course we both went up it but the stairs were rickety and part of one of the metal support beams was buckled. The view at the top was worth it though.

We ended the day at Wesser Bald shelter and were joined later on by Vegemite who had caught up to us. Whoever built the shelter should have studied prevailing weather patters since it is directly downwind if the privy. It did have Sone of my favorite graffiti that I’ve seen so far though:

It has been 17 hours since I have updated Twitter. I fear for my survival. #Help #NeedWiFi #Croatoa #Croatoa