Date: 2015-03-18
From: Hiker Hostel

To: Hawk Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 8.1
Weather: scattered clouds

I was up early and was feeling energetic as well as excited. I ate breakfast and was soon in the shuttle to the trailhead. On the way to the trailhead the driver was surprised to see a hiker walking with a large walking stick and carrying a 5 gallon bucket! He said that he'd seen a lot while shuttling hikers but that was something new for him! I was very excited and the trail seemed to fly by under my feet as I made my way up to the summit of Springer Mountain. Before I reached the summit I picked up a white piece of quartz to take with me to Katahdin and put it in my hip belt for safe keeping. Soon after taking my summit pictures I was blazing down the mountain and towards my destination for the night - the Hawk Mountain Shelter. Along the way I stopped briefly in at the Stover Creek Shelter for a snack break and to use the privy. It still very much seemed like winter as there wasn't any new growth and there were no leaves on the trees. This led to better views as the canopies would have obscured a good number of the in the spring. The trail got pretty confusing as the blazes changed for the Benton Mackaye trail and I had to refer to my Guthook's AT GPS app to make sure that I was still on the trail. I thought that I the trail may have gone down towards the river some ways back and was relieved to still be on track. I arrived at the shelter after almost missing the turn at around 3:00 and set up my spot in the loft of the shelter as the bottom was full. I suffered a wardrobe malfunction stepping up into the shelter when my pants split about 4" at the crotch with a loud ripping sound! I went down to the privy and changed into another set of pants before starting a fire. Unfortunately the fire blew smoke clouds to blanket the picnic table where hikers were cooking.They even moved the giant wooden table, weighing over 500lbs, only to have the smoke follow to the new location. So, seeing how no one was into the fire, and it was causing problems, I let it go down and die. It was a beautiful day with pleasant temperatures in the upper 40s. There was a group of 4 female college students from up north from the same town as Seeker. The college students didn't have the right type of fuel for their stove so I offered my canister for them to use. The declined as they didn't want me to run out. I saw Seeker, trying out her new ultralight tent, along with David whose trail name was given this day as Coed, and Greenman had arrived and also decided to stay the night. I pulled out and set up my Jetboil Flash, my cooking stove and began cooking. It took about 3 minutes to boil a little over 2 cups of water. Supper was a filling cheddar and broccoli Knorr Pasta Side dish to which I added pepperoni and olive oil. I add the ingredients to the pot and then turn the heat really low, almost off while I stir everything in and let it sit in the insulated pot to thicken and finish cooking. When finished dinner I made a quick run below the water source to clean my dishes and top off my water. I turned in early but, as it was cold, soon added my sleeping bag liner which added warmth and comfort and soon I was out like a light.