Date: 2017-08-16
From: Liberty Springs trailhead

To: Garfield Ridge campsite 
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: overcast clouds

What a day! Mother Nature and I are currently lying side-by-side in our ridiculously jerryrigged tents on a #?%#?!!!! tent platform on the top of the mountain. We got here and nearly all the platforms were full, so we decided to split the open one ¢ despite the fact that neither of us has a freestanding tent.Poor Mother Nature was getting really frustrated - she dropped a tent stake into the depths of the platform, then she couldn't get the Z-Pack tent staked out right. She was really getting angry at it. I felt bad and was trying to find a way to help. I ended up cutting some leftover line on the tree that someone else left, tying it to one of her lines, then tying my bearbag line to that in order to get her line tied over my tent and onto a mostly dead tree! My tent is anchored with a combination of rocks, strings, and one large stick. It's all sway-backed and ridiculous ¢ probably not rainworthy at all, so luckily we're not due for rain tonight.(Side note: Mother Nature carries tiny screw hooks for just these occasions - so you can properly stake out on a wooden platform. I wish I had had this tip before I started!)I first met Mother Nature back at the Hikers Welcome Hostel, then again at the Notch Hostel. We met at the top of the mountain today and hiked together for the rest of the day. Lots of laughs and commiseration! Perhaps my favorite part was when we saw a grey jay checking out our campsite. Mother Nature got out granola, I got out a bag of nuts, and we took turns feeding the jay out of our hands! It was so neat, this big, beautiful bird landing on my hand, but weighing so little, his little claw feet grasping my fingers!If fire is hiker TV, feeding grey jays is cable.The views today ("Day 146!" Mother Nature just announced on her side. Day 54 for me) were just. . . The best I've had on the AT. I don't even know how to describe the overwhelming happiness I had walking along Franconia Ridge with views all around me. . . The green, green rocks always reminding me of Ireland . . .The rocky mountain where the old man's face used to be, making me think of Yosemite. . . it was so beautiful, it nearly hurt. Just view after view after view. Stunning!When I first got up, the mist was still clearing, but after that it was clear, sunny, and intensely windy. You could lean into the wind and it would hold you up! Hiking in it was something!We hiked Little Haystack Mountain, Mount Lincoln, Mount Lafayette ("the Lancelot of the Revolutionary set!"), and Mount Garfield.I only felt tired going up Garfield ¢ my legs were jelly from the long day and I was just *tired*, pulling myself up by my arms as much as I could. On top of one of the hills past Lafayette, we got to chatting with a day hiker. When he found out we were doing the AT, he insisted on giving us money as trail magic. I kept pushing the money away and he kept pushing it back. He was going to give us both $20 each but I said it was too much - but if he insisted, we'd share the $20. He said we could call him $20 Tom. We used it to pay for our tenting tonight and have five dollars left over for pastries at a hut.It got chilly up there ¢ first time I wore my gloves and Aquarium of the Pacific dive beanie. And it's definitely going to be cold tonight. It's the first time I am wearing the silk base layers. I'm also wearing the gloves. We'll see how it goes!