Date: 2016-05-18
From: camp site

To: kincora
Miles today: 21.5
Weather: broken clouds

Day37- May 18, 2016This morning we woke up at about 6am to another alarm chicken in the distance from our secluded camp spot. It was great to not have a ton of people around us for once and was rejuvenating for me as an introvert. Dregs was getting packed up to hit the trail while I went to use the bathroom (tree) when I hear dregs say loudly, "we have friends!" Through the bushes I could see a big brown dog sniffing around dregs and I got excited. Then, a medium sized older black dog came around the corner to me and sniffed around. I put my hand out for him to sniff and he came over. I pet the sweet old dog and he seemed pleased. He then walked over to a tree near me and peed and then promptly walked off with the brown dog. Neither had collars and were roaming the forest. We have heard about wild dogs around these parts and may have just met some friendly ones. Or they are runaways, who knows. But it was awesome! About 20 minutes later another stray yellow lab type dog came near camp but walked away when it noticed us. We got out on the trail finally at about 7:45 expecting rain at some point today. Our hike was pleasant and not too difficult. We had 14.6 miles to our next shelter we wanted to stay at. Dregs set the pace so that he could walk a good speed to take care of his leg but ended up hiking probably faster than I would have. A part of the trail went past a beautiful river that looked perfect for fishing and passed a camp site that the guys we met yesterday, blister, trout, and voodoo, were still at. We also took a side trail to an awesome waterfall. By 1:15pm we arrived at the shelter destination. We were surprised that we had gotten there so quickly but decided to stay the night. We sat down for lunch and continued to eat everything we could spare. By then, a few section hikers and blister had arrived. We talked to them for a bit and felt a little more energized. With that, we decided that we should press on and hike another 6.7 miles to the Kincora hostel. That would make it our first day over 20 miles at 21.5 miles today. We also hit the 400mile marker early on in the day. Once we decided to do the extra stretch, I was too lazy to put my shoes back on so I hiked in my crocs again. While the first half on the day was full of mud, A lot of that second half had burnt forest from wild fires. Dregs and I decided to listen to our audiobooks for a while until it started to lightly rain. That didn't last long and we were almost to our destination when suddenly I see dregs slip on a wet root in front of me. As he fell, he curled forward and hit his head on a rock. I heard the thump and was immediately terrified. He got up, inspected himself and smiled. He was fine. Accept for a small but painful cut on his finger. It was scary and could have been much worse but thankfully it wasn't. He will be getting new trekking poles very soon so things like that will be less likely to happen. We reached the road to the hostel   at about 4:50pm and walked over. Surprisingly, there was only three people there sitting on the porch. We met Focus, Rest Stop, and the owner of the hostel Bob Peoples. Along with the 5 cats running around. The two hikers showed us around and we got a spot in the tree house. It was a 5$ donation per person to stay and were able to get showers, laundry, and a massive amount of spaghetti and meat sauce leftovers for dinner. It was everything and more than we hoped for. After eating with the other hikers we got ready for bed. The day didn't seem as long as it was with the miles but I'm sure ready to sleep.