Date: 2016-06-21
From: Silver Hill Campsite

To: Bearded Woods Bunk n Dine Hostel
Miles today: 12.6

It felt great to get up early this morning and start hiking by 6:30 am. I wanted to get some miles in before it heats up too much today. We packed up our stuff using the countertop that was under the pavilion... more on this in a bit... and then headed off Northward up the trail. Supposedly on the summer solstice, which is today, hikers on the AT go through the day without any clothes on. Dr Fix-it and I talked about this as a possibility over the past few days however I noticed when we left camp this morning that both of us were fully dressed. "Excuse me.. Naked hiker coming up behind you" said the voice behind me."I just didn't want to surprise you" a thru hiker named Top Knot explained as he walked past."Way to play full out" I said, trying to come up with an appropriate compliment. He DID have a sock tied on in a strategic location that looked really super funny to me for some reason. It turns out that this was the only naked hiker today out of the 8 or 10 people I saw. Now I know that the stories I've heard about the summer solstice are at least partly true. Later in the day Dr Fix-it sent me a text saying that he was missing his tent and his food bag. "Not in my pack - keep your eyes out" I stopped to put my glasses on so that I'd have a better chance of seeing his camo tent bag somewhere along the side of the trail. I couldn't figure out how in the world his tent and food bag could have jumped up and out of his pack, even if it was undone at the top. "Maybe your tent came out when you slipped and fell this morning" I texted ahead to him a few hours later. "No, I left it at the campsite this morning" was his reply. Actually, his reply included about 10 sad crying faces - so I could tell that he was upset about this. It was a really nice tent, a Zpacks Duplex just like mine except that it was the camo color rather than blue like mine. I called him and tried to cheer him up by assuring him that we could go back and get it. "No, it's gone by now" he responded. It turns out Hudson, the owner of the hostel we are at tonight was very helpful in looking for the tent. Even though he thought a nice tent like this would be quickly taken by another hiker, he drove us around to check the various trailheads and other spots where another hiker may have brought the tent to leave it for its owner. Hudson even drove to the road which was about 3/4 of a mile downhill from the campsite. He grabbed his headlamp and sprinted up the trail looking like a white tailed deer. Within less than 30 minutes he was back with bad news... no tent, or food bag. Dr Fix-its food bag also had his really cool homemade alcohol stove and super light titanium cook pot in it. The funny thing about this is that we always try to double check for items left behind by doing a final look around. Dr Fix-it said that he did this today but that he looked on the ground rather than on the counter in the pavilion. If both of us had done a decent "final look" I think we would have probably caught his error and avoided losing his tent.He's sent an email to Zpacks to see if they might be able to replace his tent without the usual 6 week lead time to buy another tent. By the way, the hostel here at Bearded Woods Bunk and Dine is awesome. Clean beds, shower, laundry, delicious food, and Hudson is a walking encyclopedia on the AT having thru hiked it before.