Date: 2018-08-28
From: Chet's House

To: Eliza Brook Shelter
Miles today: 7.5

It seemed that everyone had slept in this morning. No one was moving around before 7 am. A jack russell named Jax jumped in bed with me to cuddle. I was really happy. It reminded me when Theo was still on the trail. He would visit everyone in the morning and give out love. I started packing up and Chet came rolling in. He warned us about the thunderstorms that show up in the afternoon. You don't want to be above treeline when they hit. I said my goodbyes and Chet said we could always come back even in the winter. I'm sure he doesn't get many hikers then. I walked down main street and shipped my sleeping bag liner back home. I really didn't need it. I met Maga at Dunkin Donuts and got 2 bagel sandwiches, an iced coffee, and a donut. I would need all the calories I could get. We stopped by the McDonald's so Maga could get more food. A Korean war veteran named Jim offered us a ride back to the trail. We gladly accepted his offer. His late wife would pick up hikers in the area. He told us about the fire they had on the mountain. We could see the whole side of the mountain was missing trees. He dropped us off at the trailhead. We stay saw Double Stack, Twigs, Ambassador, Mud Bug, and Moonpie there. They had just gotten dropped off from the Hikers Welcome Hostel. They mentioned that there was some trail magic on the trail. It was a cooler filled with soda, candy, and local peaches. I had my fill then got back on the trail.We would be climbing Mt Wolf today. It was only a 3500 foot mountain. The terrain was still tough though. We had to climb up boulders using roots as supports. There were plenty of areas were you could easily trip and get hurt yourself. It was slow hiking. They say you can't do big miles in the whites and it's true unless you want to hike late into the night. I wouldn't want to hike at night on this stuff. Maga and I talked about a fictional phone game called Legend of the AT. It would use your phone's GPS to figure out where you were. The game would entail finding treasures along the trail. Your character's health would be affected by what you would be eating for that day. The terrain would affect your character's health and mood. It would also include all the information that Guthooks had. We talked about the hiker IBTap and his YouTube channel. He would get resupply packages from his fans. We thought about trolling him with resupply packages. We could send him either melted ice cream bars, only sauce packets, or my lucky rock collection. He would have to go out of his way to pick up the package too. We continued to climb up Mt Wolf and it seemed to take forever. I think the rest of the whites are going to go slower too. We ran into Double Stack taking a nap on a log. He had been there for an hour. We made it to the top of Mt Wolf but there wasn't a view. We hiked over more mud pits and root mazes until we arrived at the Eliza Brook Shelter.At the shelter a group of college kids had started setting up.  They were pretty noisy as they took over one side of the camping spots. I claimed a spot before they could take it over then called my sister to catch up. Back at my site Maga and I started singing Careless Whisper by George Michael then Twigs joined us. I made some Chili Mac and Cheese. Then Twigs broke out his guitar and started singing other songs with Maga. I joined them and listened along. I made my way to bed. The college kids were still noisy. I joked with Maga about being a bear and scaring all of them. I then drifted off.Tonight I'm hoping the college kids shut up.