Date: 2011-05-11
From: Troutdale

To: Chatfield Shelter
Miles today: 21.8
Weather: broken clouds

After a fairly intense night of rain, the ground around the pavilion was quite wet. Though everything inside the tent was dry, I still had to pack a wet tent. Gary said that he would be at the restaurant at 7 to give us a ride to the trailhead where we got out the day before. So we quickly packed,. ate breakfast and headed down to meet Gary. After a quick drive to the trailhead, were on our way down the trail. At the top of the first hill, "Morning Glory" stopped to take care of work related matters further convincing him that he needed to get out today and get to the office tomorrow. I continued on to the first shelter where I got to talk to some of the guys about the weather the previous night. They got a lot of rain with a lightning strike that was very close by. I don't think anyone was spared last night. As I finished my snack, "Morning Glory" got to the shelter. I waited for him to get water and we both took off down the trail. We hiked together for a while since it was mostly downhill. He can easily stay with me on the downhills but can't on the uphills. This is the problem with hiking with a thru-hiker after he has hiked a couple hundred miles. The thru-hiker is in shape and the other person isn't. As we approached the first major road crossing, we encountered a couple of guys doing trail maintenance. I'm always thankful for the effort that these guys put into maintaining the trail. I go out of my way to express this to them and help in anyway I can. As I approached the famous Partnership Shelter, I saw a man hiking south. Being so surprised to see someone I know, it didn't click with me that out was Kelly Schultz. What a surprise! I had forgotten that he was going to come by and hike with me when I got to that section of the trail. On top of that, he brought me lunch. It was great to have something other than mash potatos or Ramen noodles for lunch. We hiked along taking about all sorts of things, especially the new things going on in his family. We got to Partnership Shelter around 1 in the afternoon.it was too early on the day to stop so I decided to continue to the next shelter after resting for a while. The tradition is to order pizza from the visitor center and have it delivered there. Maybe I'll come back sometime and section hike that part of the trail and order pizza just for the experience. Because Kelly fed me, I decided not to order one. "Morning Glory" got to the shelter about 20 min later, ready to get off the trail. He was glad that Kelly was there because he hadn't worked out how he was going to get back to Damascus where his van was parked. With Kelly there, that problem was solved. Kelly hiked with me for about another hour then turned around to take "Morning Glory" to his van and head back home. Once I got to the shelter, I decided that the guide book was really correct when it said there was no tenting areas. I could have continued to a camping area but just didn't want to go any further. So I stayed in the shelter which I don't do very often. I got a text message from "Thimble" saying that I go to the Settlers Museum the next morning. I mentioned this idea to "Black Beard" who liked the idea so much that he decided that he would join me the next day. Given the short distance to the museum from the shelter, we decided that a later than normal departure would work very well. With plans set for the morning, everyone went to sleep at the normal hiker midnight of 9 pm.