Date: 2013-06-12
From: Loft Mountain Campground

To: Pinefield Hut
Miles today: 7.1
Weather: few clouds

Day Ninety Six - (7.1)Loft Mountain Campground to Pinefield HutI woke up early to go find the restroom and on my way there I saw three deer and a bunny. Later I outright asked someone to give us a ride down to the wayside for breakfast and it worked (thank you)! It saved us a mile! After a big breakfast we realized that it was going to be harder to get a ride back and that it was a steep climb back up to the campground. We tried hitching but no one was going that way, just was we were about to give up we saw someone drop Dreamer (and Charlie) off at the wayside. We went over to talk to him and while we were there Hobo used his best yogi skills to snag us a ride back up the mountain. Thank you Pam and Toni from Texas! After another stop at the camp store we returned to the campsite to pack up, by this time it was already lunch time and I knew that it would be a short hiking day. Melkie was the only one excited about hiking, the rest of us were coming up with every possible delay. Finally we left (well kind of), we got back on the trail for three miles and then took another side trail back to the wayside for more food. The side trail was all down which meant it was going to be brutal when we got back. The food was awesome and we saw True (and Bailey), Sondriven and Homebrew (and his mom). Sondriven has decided to flip flop (do half the trail north and half the trail south), he was waiting for a ride to take a bus up to Maine. Southbounders (hikers travelling south also known as ME>GA) can't start until June 15th because Mount Katahdin (my last mountain and their first) isn't safe or opened to hikers until then. It is a very hard mountain to climb with very unpredictable weather, it is said that thruhikers have the adrenaline advantage because they are so excited as it is either the last mountain or the very first one. Flip floppers don't have that advantage. Good luck Sondriven, we will meet again as we pass each other up north. Again we delayed leaving the wayside and endured the horrible up to get back to the trail. Actually Matt referred to it as "the best worst decision ever" but we did it and it was fun! Once we were back on the real trail it was pretty good. There was one big up but there were several overlooks and the views (and the breaks) make it all worthwhile. We stopped for water at a beautiful stream that had several waterfalls, if I wasn't so exhausted I would have taken some cool pictures as it was I just snapped a few pics from where I was standing without putting much effort into it. I did find some cool looking mushrooms while they were treating their water. Another stop we made was along Skyline Drive at an overlook. We stopped and sat on the rocks by the overlook wishing a car would pull up with trail magic but it wasn't to be and to be honest we didn't need it anyway (we had two real meals today)! Even though we haven't put in high miles today, we decided to stop at the shelter. There wasn't going to be another water source for several miles and it just made sense to sleep and eat near water (or that's our excuse). As we arrived River Song was leaving, she is planning on night hiking to the next shelter. She told me that the giant leaf (that looks like an oversized maple leaf) was from a cow parsnip plant. I had wanted to know what it was and it turns out that Regina the ridge runner was right because she that it was a type of parsnip plant. The shelter is really nice with a view of the stream and we are staying at a campsite that overlooks the shelter and the stream. Life can't get much better than this! Good night world!Confessions of a thruhiker (taken from the Priest Shelter register):"I confess that I am hiking this trail to get skinny."Trouble