Date: 2018-08-20
From: Cooper Lodge Shelter

To: Yellow Deli Hostel
Miles today: 6.3
Weather: clear sky

This morning I woke up in the creepy shelter with the light shining through the windows. The shelter didn't look that bad when it was lit up. I made steel cut oats for breakfast. While eating a hiker named Breezy came in to use the table. We talked about the trail in Vermont and joked about it's condition. He said he was going to nero in town at the Yellow Deli. It seemed like a lot of hikers were staying there. After breakfast I made my way up to the summit of Killington. I ran into Kazi and Scissors who had stayed up there overnight. They had made it to the sunset but didn't bother waking up early for the sunrise. I've seen the sunrise twice on this trip which is good enough. The climb up was steep with boulders. At the top Fish was hanging out. It was cloudy but every so often the clouds would part and I could see the valley and mountains below. It seemed like an endless expanse of ranges. It felt like I was in real mountains again. I stumbled back down to the shelter to hike out. Kazi and Scissors were finishing up eating. Today we would be meeting Kazi's friend Catherine who would be taking us to the Yellow Deli in Rutland.  The descent off of Killington was not as bad as the climb up in the dark. The mud was less and the roots didn't try to turtle me. I ran into Rayrock and Stryder who I hadn't seen since Damascus. They must had been taking it easy since they were about a week ahead of me the last time I saw them in the shelter logs. I then ran into Sparrow and Blaze who told me that I would be staying at the Yellow Deli tonight.  The place was like a vortex for hikers. I pushed on and eventually got to the gap. Catherine was there waiting for Kazi, Scissors, and I. Kazi and Catherine hugged for a awhile. Kazi was really happy to see her. She took us to the Yellow Deli to grab lunch. I ordered a Deli Rose which was a roast beef sandwich with their in house baked bread. It was the best sandwich I have had on the trail. I was still hungry and got a tomato basil soup that was just as good. Catherine and Kazi had been friends since 6th grade. They talked about shenanigans back home. Catherine worked for North Face and had a lot of free time on the job to hang out. They had some girl talk which I couldn't partake in.  We decided to stay at the Yellow Deli hostel since it was so relaxing there. Sometimes you just need to take a break.At the hostel Ashe the hostel caretaker showed us around. The dorms were split by male and female. There was a common room to hang out with free juice and mate. It had an open patio with fresh vegetables growing on it. The hostel provided free breakfast for hikers. Ashe said we could pick any vegetables on the patio to add to our breakfast. In the men's dorm I found Scatter who had been staying since yesterday.  He was tweaking on coffee, mate, and the hostel's homemade energy bars. It didn't look like he could keep still.  I hung out for awhile talking to other hikers who got vortexed into the Yellow Deli. It seemed that most had stayed for a couple days. Kazi instigated a bar outing. Scooter, Scatter, Bob, Scissors, Kazi, and I went to the Saloon. We played shuffleboard and drank a good amount of beer. I found out that Kazi had played shuffleboard back in Boulder. She had the finesse to place the puck in the right spot. She was the person you wanted on your team. We were hungry and set out to search for food. The bartender told us about an Italian place down the street. We walked over there but found the prices to be too high for hiker hunger.  We ended up finding a pizza joint and a bar called union jack's. The bar allowed us to eat our pizza while we ordered $2 PBRs. We stuffed our faces then headed back to the hostel before the 10 pm curfew. The curfew was just for the front door.  We found several hikers in the common room. Ashe brought leftover food from the Yellow Deli and everyone destroyed that food. I only made it another 30 minutes before going to bed.Tonight I'm on the top bunk. I hope I don't fall off.