Date: 2013-06-05
From: Dutch Haus

To: Dutch Haus
Miles today: 9.1

Day Eighty Nine -(9.1) Dutch HausAnother amazing day on the Appalachian Trail! I woke up and headed straight for the house for coffee and chatted away with the other early risers until breakfast was ready. It was awesome and I'm not just saying that because I'm addicted to food! After breakfast I rushed to get Melkie's pack ready for our slack pack today and made it just in time to get a good spot in the back of the pick up. I've had more rides in the back up pick ups in the past month than I have had in my whole life before the trail. Earl took us as far up the hill as he could and then we hopped out and started the walk back up to the trail. When we got there Tom (a section hiker I keep bumping into) was just getting off the trail to head to the Dutch Haus, I will see him tonight! Backtrack passed us on the trail and we all met up on Spy Rock. It was a huge rock scramble that was tricky to get up (surprisingly Melkie had no trouble) and as I was climbing I was wondering how I would get down. On top it was awesome! There was an amazing 360 degree view and quite a few hikers were up there enjoying it. Some were doing the YMCA pose and YOLO poses, some were doing yoga and push ups and Rise & Shine were doing head stands. I bet their pictures turn out great! We hung out on top for awhile and ten very carefully inched our way off of the big rock. After Spy Rock came the climb up "the Priest" Priest Mountain. I had been dreading it but it was a really nice climb up and I found out later that is was the last 4000 ft climb for the next five hundred miles of the trail. I was surprised when Hobo (who was ahead of me) said that he saw the shelter. It didn't feel like we had gone far enough yet but there it was! The shelter log at the Priest is famous for the silly confessions that the hikers make up. I will put some of them in the confessions of a thruhiker for the next couple of days.   The shelter wasn't quite at the top of the mountain so we still had a bit of a climb to get to the top but at the top there was another amazing view from a rocky outcropping. We took so much time there that Hobo had to change our pick up time at the trailhead. The down had some steep, rocky sections and made us so thankful that we were heading north and not south. Cub passed us again today as did Magic Scout (who we thought was ahead of us but had gone into town and ended up staying an extra day). On our way down we met Muddbutt. She is the founder of Trail Dames, a hiking club for curvy women designed to encourage women to hike. The funny thing is that I had just finished reading an article about her in AT Journeys yesterday. Then Zipper arrived and she runs Wild am Whiteblazing a program for women planning to hike the AT. It was neat to meet both of them, they both offered any help if ever I run into problems on the trail and Zipper invited me to help after I have thruhiked. We continued on picking up the pace a little because we didn't want to make Earl wait for us. We saw Regina the ridge runner again and I showed her a picture of what looks like a giant maple leaf but isn't and asked her what it is. She thinks its from a type of parsnip. We crossed Cripple Creek next and soon we were at the trailhead and had finished an easy day on the trail. Earl stopped at the small country store on the way back and Hobo bought us ice cream! It was so nice to go back to the Dutch Haus and be able to shower and have my trail clothes cleaned! The rest of the day was spent relaxing, eating, listening to the guys play guitars and of course more eating! Good night world!Confessions of a thruhiker (from the Priest shelter register):I confess that I pee in a privy almost every time. (You aren't supposed to pee in privies.)Trouble