Bubbles Day 19 (Friday, April 15th)

Today was the day I lost a brother and gained a brother.  Johnny saved the day!  Smudgy Cheeks and I got into another huge argument.  I was talking to him about my expectations for him on the trail and tried to explain to him what I want to get out of this hike.  He was not listening and felt like I was attacking him.  He ended the conversation by calling me some nasty names (in front of T-Bone which was super embarrassing too).  Smudgy Cheeks said he is leaving the trail, turned around, and left!  I was upset because we couldn’t communicate to each other how we were feeling.  The dumbest thing was this fight happened at a camp site (along the trail) that had free showers.  We didn’t even take advantage of them!

I sat on top of the mountain and text my dad and sister to try to figure out what to do.  They both assured me that Smudgy Cheeks is an adult and could figure it out.  I sat up there and cried.

We left the top of the cliff and continued on the trail.  We stopped at the Washington Monument off the trail.  It got struck by lightning last year so we couldn’t go up in the monument.  Three hikers were inside of the monument (they were trying to get out of the storm) when it was struck.  They were all fine after visiting the hospital.  This is the oldest Washington Monument in the US.  It was pretty fascinating.

Washington Monument

We also saw a 4.5 foot black snake.  It was our first snake.  A chipmunk barely got away from the snake too!

We rested for a minute and got back onto the trail.

Lucky for us, Johnny text me and said, “I’m in the area if you want to meet up.”  I was down so I told him to please come and meet us.  He met us with some trail magic!  He had Subway with subs, cookies, chips, and pop!!  We also enjoyed some beverages in brown paper bags.

In the meantime Dad heard from Smudgy Cheeks and knew that he was at the Frederick, Maryland bus stop.  Dad called Johnny and told him.  We quickly figured out where the bus stop was and tried to rescue Smudgy Cheeks from leaving the trail.

When we got to the Greyhound we asked around and were told that they had seen Smudgy Cheeks and he hopped on the 1:30 bus heading towards Cleveland.

I was crushed when we found out that the bus had already left.  I quickly realized that I could sit, cry, and let myself be upset or have a great time with my brother Johnny, who I never see.

Johnny drove us to Walmart because he decided that he was going to spend the night with us at Pine Knob shelter.  We bought a bunch of food for the evening and Johnny bought himself some camping supplies (a $10 sleeping bag!)  He slept out under the stars next to the fire ring.  That’s called cowboy camping!

Bubbles and Porterhouse (Johnny) 

Dad said Johnny’s trail name should be City Slicker.  He was wearing his nice work clothes.  Johnny thought he had a pair of tennis shoes in the back of his truck but they were actually golf shoes that were a size too small!  He was on the trail wearing a collared shirt, khakis, and golf shoes! His real trail name is Porterhouse.

Trying to make trucks honk on a bridge

We stopped at my dad's favorite bridge over the AT. He hiked here with his Boy Scouts. We had a lot of fun trying to get the trucks and cars to honk!!

We spent the night laughing.  T-Bone came over and we had a drink together.  We got to know him a little bit better which was great.  We also met two guys from Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  We invited everyone at the shelter to join us at the campfire but only T-Bone came over.

It was a great end to a stressful day!

Porterhouse drinking his first fresh spring water from a mountain spring

Making a stick for roasting hotdogs over the fire

Porterhouse was extremely prepared with his knife!

Beautiful sunset

Lost another nail today!