Date: 2007-05-12
From: Apple House Shelter

To: Laurel Fork
Miles today: 12.9
Weather: scattered clouds

May 12, Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of the DayHappy birthday, Aunt Manon!Well, we did it! I got up at 6 a.m. to 56.8 degrees in my tent. I was ready to go at 6:42. I had woken up around 1 a.m. starving. I wanted to start walking to the hostel right then! Oh, this dreaded life-altering hiker appetite! I tried to sleep all night but I woke up several times just thinking about food.Anyway, Fuzzy Monkey, Flaxseed, Quick Toes, Certain, Yellow Snowman, Hiccup, and I hiked the half of a mile to US-19 and then 0.3 to the hostel. We were there early, breakfast wasn't supposed to start until 7:30 a.m. This place was incredible. It was a large red barn-looking home on a giant piece of land with horses and goats. People could camp in the front yard, sleep in the hostel above the barn, or stay at the B&B in the house. Amazing. But, we were just there for breakfast. Also amazing. Mary filled up the island in her kitchen with one delightful dish after another and I filled my plate with a little of everything - blueberry pancakes, cinnamon bread, ham, strawberries, cantalope, cheese, potatoes, some apple/cherry deliciousness, and oh the list goes on. It was heavenly. We all whispered to each other how we couldn't believe it was ony $6!Back outside, I checked out the hostel and we all sort of lingered for a while. It looked like it would rain today so we tossed around the idea of playing cards all day. Nah...we had hiking to do. Certain and I finally pulled ourselves away and we ran into Talker Man pulling into the driveway in a rental car! He even drove us the 0.3 miles back to the trail - how's that for laziness!?Back in reality, we were faced with the ugliness of the locals - they use the woods as their private dumping ground. There was garbage everywhere and lots of it. Big things too. The whole area creeped me out. But we got on a roll hiking...until we ended up at a turn with five different trails to choose from. Certain and I took turns checking for white blazes on each of the trails and I finally found one. After about 20 minutes of nonsense, we were back on track. Turns out we'd missed a turn a little way back but this would get us in line. We ran into Yellow Snowman and Hiccup and leapfrogged with them for a while all day.The trail led us through fields, near a river - Elk River, and over some hills but for the most part was not too difficult. The hardest part about the day was the rain. It started to really come down before Mountaineer Shelter so we stopped there for a late lunch. It was Quick Toes, Young Eagle, Yellow Snowman, Hiccup and us gathered round. The shelter was new last year and it was pretty awesome as far as shelters go - a double decker with an additional loft space up top. It even had a skylight and artwork - a bear carved out of a tree.We were there for about an hour waiting out the rain. It finally stopped and we were on our merry way.I had to stop and re-tape my left heel. It looks bad. I hope this clears up soon.The rest of the day was humid but nice hiking. We are camped out tonight at Laurel Fork near a stream - lovely. There is a sign here for Springer Mtn. and one for Katahdin. I got really excited to see that - it's the first sign for Katahdin I've seen in the woods. Again, helpful to think about!Over and out after a good day - and two months on the trail today!- Sound of the stream running by.