Date: 2018-06-06
From: Deer Lick Shelter

To: Quarry Gap Shelter
Miles today: 15.8

DAY 92Quite a bit of rain last night, but it stopped by morning. Still picking up a soaking wet tent. It's cool so we eat our breakfast in our fleece tops and even start the hike wearing them, but they come off on the first hill. The terrain is not too bad today, but we did have a rocky, steep climb up to Chimney Rocks. The reward for the climb was some great views with some neat rocks to scramble around on. We kept a steady pace today because we want to get to Caledonia State Park where Kingsman will be meeting up with his wife for a few days. He and Papa Dale will still slack pack to get their mileage. Nice day as we all stayed together as we hiked and chatted to make the miles go by.At Caledonia we still had a few minutes before Kingsman's wife was due to arrive so we took the opportunity to dry our tent, ground cloth, and fly. Kingsman and Papa Dale were boiling water for coffee and boiled some extra so Mary and I could enjoy a cup of tea. Mary had her tea while she soaked her feet in the nearby stream, and I went to check to see if the pool, showers, and snack bar were open. Nothing was open as it wasn't a warm and sunny day.Met Cannonball and Wheat who decided to stealth camp in the back of the park so they could hit the nearby restaurant .5 miles down the road for dinner. We considered going to the restaurant but decided to move on and eat a dinner from our pack. We also met Fluff who was eating dinner at the park before moving on. As we chatted with Fluff a very brazen squirrel kept trying to sneak up to his backpack.Only a little over 2 miles to Quarry Gap Shelter which is one of the nicer ones on the trail. It is two shelters connected by a pavilion with a picnic table underneath. It also has another picnic table with a covered roof in the yard along with a porch swing, small clothes line, a park bench and another cooking area by the wooden tent platforms, as well as a bear box. The area is very clean and there is crushed stone in the yard and around the fire pit so it doesn't get muddy. Lots of other nice touches such as hanging plants, magazine rack, brooms, shovels, and lots of hooks. We opted for a tent platform as we thought it would be buggy. One shelter was already full when we arrived and the occupants are sound asleep even though it is very early still.We quickly set up, cooked and enjoyed dinner while sitting on the porch swing. Around 8:30 when Mary was already asleep and I was going to bed the boys in the shelter awoke and started carrying on. The story we are hearing is that apparently the 4 boys decided to do a three day hike but their sleeping bags took up too much room in their packs so they only brought light blankets. They brought no sleeping pads or stove either. On their first night out it rained so hard that their Walmart tent leaked and they got wet and started making a fire around midnight to stay warm. When they got the fire going they screamed and hollered because they were so happy and woke the rest of the hikers in camp up. They underestimated the cold, so the plan today was to hike to this shelter and sleep until around 9:00 pm and then get up and hike through the night to stay warm. They had been sleeping since 3:00 in the afternoon. They were very loud, talking, yelling, and chopping wood. After about 45 minutes of them carrying on I couldn't take it any longer. I unzipped the tent and told them that people who had hiked all day were now trying to sleep and we would appreciate it if they would stop burning their plastic trash as it was filling our tent with noxious fumes. And, maybe they could quiet down just a little. To their credit they did say sorry and quieted down. I'm not sure what they said under their breath, but we did finally get to sleep. Tomorrow is the official midway point, and the half gallon challenge if we make it that far. Mary is very excited to enjoy a half gallon of ice cream.