Date: 2018-08-05
From: The Lookout

To: Thistle Hill Shelter
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: broken clouds

I didn¢t sleep very well last night. Whenever I am in a shelter or a hostel, or really any place on the trail except for my tent, I just don¢t sleep as soundly. People were going in and out of the cabin throughout the night to go to pee in the bushes, and I of course was a participant in that parade. The floor was strewn with bodies and food bags were swinging from the ceiling. It was an obstacle course trying to tip toe out the squeaky door.Before we left in the morning, I climbed to the top of the lookout, which is on the roof of the building, and took pictures of the clouded but still lovely view.Along our route today we would be passing by a farm that sold baked goods and other delights that tempt hungry thru hikers. Despite our food laden packs, I promised Cole a treat. It was only a short distance off the trail but when we reached the turn and I saw a bubbling cold stream and a comfy bench I decided that I would rather sit and rest than do the extra distance. I gave Cole some money and explicitly told him to buy a snack, not a meal. I also asked him to get me a drink, and if he found any treat that he thought I might like he could grab that too.While he was gone I laid on the bench for a while, but it was short and uncomfortable. I laid all my wet sox out on the concrete in the sun to dry then I waded into the stream. Cole returned.¢What did you get?¢¢A pint of ice cream. It was the best deal! And I got you one too!¢With a big smile on his face he produced a pint of vanilla ice cream a spoon and a coke. A pint of ice cream!! That might be a snack to him, but to me it was a meal. I smiled though and said nothing.¢Oh, I forgot to get water there.¢¢You can filter it from the stream.¢¢I¢d rather walk back.¢Off he went back to the farm leaving me standing in the middle of the stream barefoot with a coke in one hand and a pint of vanilla ice cream in the other.I managed to eat the pint, though not before some of it had melted. While drying off my feet, another backpacker returned from the farm.¢Was the ice cream good?¢ She asked. ¢Your Son was stressing over what to get you and we all voted on the ice cream.¢I was so glad that I hadn¢t said anything to him. Neither of us ate lunch.It seemed like it took forever to get to Thistle Hill Shelter. I stopped for a while with a hiker named Holiday to watch an owl in a tree. It¢s eyes were big and wide as it stared back at us from its perch and we wondered why it was awake during the day.I was so tired when I arrived at the shelter that I crawled right into the tent to sleep. Cole had arrived before me and had set it up without the fly. He was hanging out at the shelter with Nick, Gene and a couple of other hikers. He made himself peanut butter and jam sandwiches and then took our food bags to hang them in a tree. Suddenly I heard him hollering in pain. I bolted upright and through the mesh of the tent saw Nick running from the shelter to where Cole had been hanging the food. Shortly after he reached Cole, Nick turned towards our tent and shouted ¢He¢s ok!¢Cole had been trying to hang the food bags on a dead tree branch. As he pulled the bags up, the branch had broken. The limb had struck him on the shoulder as it and the food bags had come crashing to the ground. Once I knew he was alright, I put in my ear plugs, covered my eyes with my buff and almost immediately fell asleep.