Date: 2018-05-09
To: Tom's Run shelter
Miles today: 13.6

Last night grew quiet surprisingly quickly and I had the best sleep yet on the trail. I woke after 1 to pee but ignored it and went back to sleep. When I awoke again I could no longer ignore so I went about it and decided after that I was wide awake. I grabbed my watch from the pocket my by head and hit the little indigo button. 5:09am. I may as well start packing up inside my tent. Quietly and slowly I did my yoga. I deflated my pad and pillow, changed from my sleeping clothes into my hiking clothes, stuffed my quilt into it's bag and wondered why it didn't seem to me lightning up outside. I checked my watch again....4:29. Damn. I waited a few, contemplating and then decided nothing has changed, I can't go back to sleep so I may as well hike out. I exited my tent and quietly took it down and stuffed it away, wet with dew. Great! Extra weight to carry today. I visited the privy and under red headlamp headed north out of the shelter switching to white light once beyond. I looked again at my watch... ironically 5:09am. I hiked thru mud and across a 2 log water crossing in the darkness before the beam of my headlamp came upon a eye on the trail. Just one eye, and I thought snake? As I approached I saw it was a bird sleeping right in the middle of the trail. Confused, it looked at me, paused for a moment and then decided to clear the way for me by taking a short flight into a nearby bush. I don't know what kind of bird it was. It was a nice moment though, the way we looked at each other with curiosity and respect. The trail was really gentle this morning the temps were cool and I hiked with my fleece on for about 30 minutes until I shimmied out of it and left it between my pack and me, I'll stow it away when I stop. At 3.3 miles in at just after 6am I stopped at an unofficial campsite at mile marker 1089.5 and cooked up my oatmeal, relaxing for a few and enjoying the morning sounds. Terrain wise today was an easy day. Lots of soft forest mat underfoot. Another 2 miles past my breakfast spot I came upon Milesburn Cabin. The sweetest little cabin and privy complete with a sitting bench and wooden footbridge at the stream. Owned by the Patomic Appalachian Trail club the cabin is available for rent. It was closed up and not occupied so I spent nearly 45 minutes enjoying the scene, soaking my feet and coating my poor pinkies with liquid skin. I finally had to mosey on, so I crossed the stream and the nearby road and entered into a beautiful pine forest complete with soft pine matting for my feet. What a glorious day today is and the pine forest reminded me warmly about how much I love hiking in NH. 7.4 miles from where I left this morning I arrived at Birch Run Shelter. A woman was sitting at the picnic table just outside the shelter itself and I joined her. I took off my shoes and enjoyed conversation and a snack. She introduced herself as Liberty. She's been on trail for 3 weeks and is trying to decide if she'll continue or get off trail and do something else with the time off. I hope she comes to a decision that she is happy with. I could tell she was conflicted and I hope I never have to experience that dilemma. I plan to complete my hike, regardless of speed. I don't see my hike ending short of completion unless for family emergency or injury. While resting at the shelter Lifesaver and Wally who were at Quarry Gap last night stopped in for a rest and snack. Great conversation with these 2 who started in GA in February. Brrrr!I decided not to spend the night here as I had originally planned. It wasn't even lunch time yet. I could move on to Tom's Run Shelter or any of the 4 or so unofficial camp sites noted in the guide that are between here and there. And terrain was still awesome when I looked at the elevation. My feet were still doing okay. We'd see how this liquid skin would work out. About 2 miles out of Birch run I came to a stream. I soaked my feet and filled up 3 liters of fresh water not knowing how far I'd go and if I'd camp aside the trail as opposed to Tom's shelter which has a stream and privy. I came to a road crossing after that and an erie 2 mile stretch of forest that had undergone a controlled burn last September. Looked haunted. A couple of women were setting up what appeared to be a sun tarp so I stopped to ask what they were doing. When I first saw the tarp, I'll be honest I was in the mood for a little trail magic. I wouldn't have turned down a burger or a root beer! Turns out they were studying the effects of the change in habitat on nighttime insects. Doesn't sound really exciting to me but I'm sure it is to them. My feet now we're starting to really hurt and I was really leaning toward an unofficial camp spot for the night so I continued on stopping to check out one not far out of this enchanted forest. I gave it a minute, but it felt creepy and I couldn't convince myself to stay there. Off I went. By the time I was 1 mile from Tom's run shelter I found a nice open site with room for several tents and I thought I could stay there by but I was still uncertain. My son Kyle called and we chatted a few minutes about work and I expressed my dilemma. Then I checked in with Brian to let him know I might stay here. Knowing my fear of T-storms he asked me to check the weather. Sure enough, predicted storms. Ugh. I rested a bit and had some food. Feeling more energetic but still in pain I decided to go for the shelter .9 miles away. As I was putting on my pack Ambassador came down the trail. We were so happy to see each other and it gave us both what we needed for the extra work to get to the shelter. Lovely shelter and great hikers. We met Double H, Nomad, Willow, transformer and landfill at Tom's run as well as a few others passing through. Then Bite Me arrived! It was late and we were all exhausted. We set up our tents on provided platforms of crushed stone which were awesome and joined the other hikers at the covered pavilion for dinner and chat. After hanging our bear bags, filtering water and a privy trip we all retired. Hiker midnight is real! I told Ambassador that I would need to stay in camp longer and rest my feet in the morning as well as try to avoid some of the rain. And I fell asleep listening to the brook.