Date: 2018-04-27
To: Hightop hut
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: light rain

Sat Day 75 4/27 Slept in. We're only planning 8.2 miles today. No sense in rushing off too early. Everybody was up getting ready. In the morning it's much quieter at a shelter. The culture is until the last person is up, out of their sleeping bag, we keep it pretty quiet. Watching the variety of breakfasts is such a hoot. Pop-Tarts are a big choice, dried fruit and a variety of powders poured into liquids. I had an apple and orange and a Kind bar. We left about 8:15. Curtis was actually ready before I was. We had a pretty mellow gentle hike for the first 5 miles. We stopped at a nice overlook two and a half hours in. The last three point seven miles was uphill to the Pinefield shelter. We got in at 1:15 first to the shelter. Just had a long feeding. Then some weekend hikers came in. I always say you can learn something from everyone you meet on the trail. They had lots of different gear things that I had not seen and really were quite pleasant section hikers. We had built up quite a fire when we got in. Curtis and I had brought in some long heavy 6 in tops of Tree Trunks. It took two of us to carry. So we have laid them across the fire to burn them in half so we can start feeding them in the fire better that way. So we really had quite the fire going. Our three section hikers were quite happy to see our fire. They had mushrooms and onions and other things in aluminum foil ready to cook on an open fire. So they were very happy to see such a nice bed of coals and good fire burning. After eating so much I was a little tired. I laid down and just stretched a little bit with my legs up towards the half ceiling in the shelter. Curtis made two trips to get water. Curtis is really getting the rhythm of this thru-hiking day. Really has been very very pleasant to be spending the time with Curtis. He's a bit out of his element but he's really open, positive, flexible. He's hip to picking up on what it takes to do this thru hiking on a day-to-day basis. Tonight it's supposed to go down to 31, 30 degrees. So we'll be sleeping with our water filter, our phones, our gas canisters, all these hard things to roll over in your sleeping bag . All for the fun and joy. I'm sleeping out in the woods. I just can't get enough of it. It has been very nice comradery with these three that came in. The temperature has vacillated today from cool, to so hot I just laid in the shelter to get out of the Sun, to back to cool, and as I said it's going to be cold tonight. Tomorrow we're looking to do a 12.2 hike. So far Curtis is feeling much better. He started one little blister today but his knees are feeling better and his groin is still tender but is not screaming at him. One of the hikers that joined us at the shelter was telling us about how rough 20 miles in Maryland is. The rocks that are just very hard to get firm footing on, you either twist your ankle or twist a knee. So much fun to look forward to. Last night they were talking about the 13.5 mile roller coaster right after you get out of West Virginia. It might have been right out of Virginia. They called the roller coaster and it is even the roller coaster on the guide, because it's just steep up and down, up and down, small up and down,up and down, up and down for 13.5 miles. So much fun and excitement to look forward to. Can't wait to see the roller coaster. A lot of talk of knees sprained ankles and back problems. One fellow who started on Tuesday in the 2 inch of rain had to have his buddy helped off the trail cuz his knee just blew up. Everyone is concerned how about holding up under the constant pressure of walking everyday. Like I said I'm going to go slower and smaller. So Curtis joining me is really quite a blessing. I have every reason to go slower and gentler. My higher power works in mysterious ways some more obvious than others. I'm really hoping that this slower Pace can get Curtis adopted and that he can stay till June like he would like to. It's really quite nice to have this unexpected, unplanned, extended period of time to spend with Curtis. Like everybody on the trail that I've Hiked with day after day, you end up with much more intimate detailed serious conversations. Somehow I just can't small talk and hike it's just too much work. If I'm going to talk at all I might as well talk about something real. It seems It's that way with everybody. I was odf doing my blog. When I got back to the shelter it was a very social place. There were probably nine people around the table. The crew off 3 section hikers had cooked onions mushrooms and potatoes in tin foil around the fire. They had more than enough and were offer them to everybody. Curtis and I got one whole tin foil package to share between the two of us. A very nice additional little feeding. A couple of thru hikers came in late one had a dog and they were brothers from California. They thought that tin of hot onions potatoes and mushrooms was a gift from God. Man you walk in and get offered a hot meal well seasoned verytasty. And then another guy came in I forget his name and he's got the leftovers from that. But there was a lot of spirited discussion about going into to Washington from Harpers Ferry there's a commuter train and Amtrak train. After all the mushrooms got cleared away,Curtis and I were already in our our bags. They broke out the giant marshmellos. It seemed like Christmas on the AT. Then one of the guys of the section hikers broke out a bottle of Jim Beam. the other thru hikers knew it was all a fantasy. They all enjoy the unexpected treatsfor a while. It was quite a a pleasant evening. Around 9 people finally crashed out and went to bed. It was a very nice group of guys whether they were section or through hiking and one guy had a fabulous dog. Curtis really enjoyed his experience with the dog. Super well trained dog.