Date: 2004-07-11
From: Graymoor Friary

To: Morgan Stewart Shelter
Miles today: 27.9
Weather: clear sky

In the morning another thru-hiker was walking up the road at the Friary. It seemed the camping field was a bit further down the road. So, after breakfast the pack was loaded and it joined me on a walk to the other field to fill up on water and make use of the privy. Now it was time to find where the trail left civilization and hopefully catch up to Buick in a few days. It was another nice weather day, a great day for hiking. The trail was nice with boulders here and there. It crossed several exposed hunks of rock which are always nice. There were plenty of good views too and that led to plenty of photos.Some time in mid afternoon I came across another north-bounder. I'm thinking his trail name was Mr. Twister but the background escapes me. We wound up talking and hiking together. He may have been about my age. It turned out that he was section hiking. He hadn't been on the trail for long but was heading for the Vermont border. He taught high school in northern Vermont. It might have been science. Between the trail and school we had plenty to talk about.We came across a small burned area. The strange thing was that there was still a little smoke wafting up from the scorched dirt. It was a bit alarming. We took pictures and moved on.The local volunteer trail maintainers were putting on a hiker feed at RPH Shelter. It had been advertised at road crossings but I didn't let myself believe it. This shelter was more of a cabin with bunks, concrete block walls and a porch with a roof. It seems the crew had been working on a new privy and this was the celebration. The shelter is only a tenth of a mile from the road and the trail is flat. They had a barbecue going with dogs and burgers along with all the other trappings like potato salad, chips, soda and other stuff too. 3 or 4 other thru-hikers were hanging around on lawn chairs and benches. The feed was coming to a close but we did our best to help out. No, this kid had no beast.Somehow this was only about 19 miles into the day but it was already approaching 5:30pm. It was too comfortable here and it was getting too late. It was time to go but most of the folks tried to convince me otherwise. Darkness was still 3 hours away and the next shelter was only 9 miles. Mr. Twister decided to head out too and so did a kid named Luke. This concerned me because the kid was maybe 16, Twister was new to the trail and I had to make time. Granted they didn't expect anything of me but there was no way they would have set out if it weren't for the crazy guy with the fuzzy head moving on. At least that was my take on it.We had a great time hiking and talking. They both moved pretty well too. It turned out that Luke was section hiking too for a few days. His folks fought him on the idea but he wouldn't give up. He wanted to do the New Hampshire section next summer so this was training. We made it to Morgan Stewart Shelter as darkness fell. A bunch of folks were sleeping in the shelter so we three slept out under the stars on a rise behind the shelter. This was a new experience for Luke. It was a great day. It felt good doing a 27.9 mile day after a day on Broadway and finding some new friends.