Date: 2014-07-11
From: Ekville Shelter

To: Bake Oven Knob
Miles today: 17.4

AT day 89Last night was the best night of sleep I've ever had in a shelter! Partly because it was comfortable but partly because Duke slept on his very own lawn chair! He claimed it early in the night and no one else wanted it! I actually had the whole bunk to myself! That always makes for a good start to the day. We got ready at a leisurely pace, but still got on trail pretty early. We had a 900 foot climb right off the bat. It was intense. Luckily, it was a cooler morning so I only sweat half as bad as normal! I pushed through it and I only got to the top a couple minutes after the boys. That's impressive for me!We hit rocks right away, as expected. They were bigger and easier to maneuver but still caused slow walking that required lots of focus. We made decent time even with the rocks and decided to grab some lunch at the Blue Mountain Summit B&B and restaurant. They had outdoor seating so we didn't have to be self conscious of our smell. And we could eat with Duke. The food was really good! This happened to be the place where Jon found Rex (his dinosaur hiking partner) in 2009 on his first thru hike. Meaning, today was Rex's summit day. He became an AT thru hiker officially. Before we left, we filled up our water bottles as there was no water on trail available for many miles. When we have a "dry camp" we try not to have to cook at night so that we have more water to drink. That was a bonus of eating a big lunch. After lunch we walked over some jeep trail which was easy walking until we hit the Knifes Edge. It's a huge pile of boulders that look like they were dropped from the sky in a huge messy pile. But it was kind of fun to walk on! And at the top was a great view. About a mile from where we had planned on camping for the night, as I was dying of thirst but trying not to drink all of my water before getting to camp, we saw people sitting on the trail ahead. The hikers ahead of us looked back and were smiling. That's when we first thought it might be trail magic!!!It was trail magic! Four very generous folks had come out an hour and a half from home to wait on unsuspecting thru hikers and feed us! Lisa, Mary, Dick and Three Mile had brought a cooler of Gatorade and soda, hot dogs, cheese puffs, fruit, cookies, candy bars and more! What an awesome surprise! I personally was so incredibly excited for Gatorade! For some reason this is my biggest craving out here. I drank two! It was amazingly delicious and cold! Heaven. We truly enjoyed chatting with our trail angels. They were so sweet and so happy that hikers had finally gotten to them. They made us all take some goodies to go. I happily left two apples, a butterfinger and a hot dog heavier! We are always grateful for people who volunteer their time and energy to help us. It's not only a huge morale boost but also a calorie boost. And it's awesome to see how complete strangers can care so much! Amazing!What a great way to end another great day! We finished our last mile over some huge boulders and found a great camp spot near the shelter but not right at it. It was a perfect place for both our tents and Jon's hammock with a fire ring for our campfire. Can't beat days like this. It makes hiking worth it!