Today is Mb's birthday. Happy birthday sister and thank you for helping out with this blog so all our family and friends know we are still alive and thriving. :) you are amazing. And while I am doing shoutouts a special thanks to my sister Kathleen and my brother-in-law Shane. They are watching our dog Lennon (who I miss more and more every single day). She is not an easy dog to watch. She is high maintenance and can be crazier than me (if that's even possible) without them I don't know what we would do. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We love you!
Anyway back to the woods talk. Today was AWESOME! The hike was challenging but so cool. We walked into New York today and I am so happy about it. We got to climb a ladder that was really just rebar drilled into the side of the mountain. It was exciting and challenging. I did it with my 40 pound pack on and felt like a badass. There was a lot of rock climbing and up and downs but it wasn't too bad. It was exciting to be in a new state.
We stopped 2.6 miles from the shelter at a hotdog stand. The owner Bud wasn't the friendliest, which was an immediate challenge for me. I was going to make this man smile if it killed me. I succeeded and it felt great. He makes a wicked good hotdog sauce. My dad would have loved it. He had a special; two hotdogs with sauce, a bag of chips, and a cold can of pop for 5.50. I was sold. Actually, we ate ice cream first and then hotdogs. We enjoyed some ice cream with Disco and Chicken Foot.
I want to tell you how amazing these two are. They took their shoes off in front of me and I almost cried for Chicken Foot. Her feet were bloody and blistered. And the girl didn't complain. She was still smiling. I think that is incredible and really inspiring. They are always so upbeat when I see them and it makes my heart warm. Disco's feet needed some TLC but again, no complaints. They were doing a really long day too, like 20+ miles! They have to make it to bear mountain by Monday to go into the city. Kudos to them. They are ROCK STARS! I hope we catch them after the wedding we are attending this weekend.
The shelter area was alive with Boy Scouts when we got there. Yayyy! The kids were so friendly and it was great to talk to them. I asked the couple of Eagle Scouts what their final projects were and I was really impressed. One boy showed me that if you chew on black birch twigs it tastes like root beer, and it did! So cool. Thanks for that kids. They are training to go hike 12 days at Philmont, New Mexico. That sounds like the experience of a lifetime. I am jealous! I want to go to Boy Scout camp. :) It reminded me of my dad and the stories he has told me about hiking with his scouts in Philmont. One Boy Scout was hiking with an ax, saw, and a Dutch oven to make monkey bread! He said his pack weighed over 50 pounds. He was awesome!
There were some thru hikers from Georgia, but again most of them aren't worth talking about because they either weren't friendly to us or acted entitled to the shelter and were very territorial or acted annoyed with the Boy Scouts, which I don't put up with. Those kids need to be out in the woods experiencing this. If grown adults can't see that, they can bug off in my opinion.
We put up our home (tent) as we do almost every night. I want to clarify that I've met some hikers that are amazing from Georgia but for every nice hiker there are probably five that I will shortly forget because they weren't nice. Life is too short to be unfriendly, that's why I smile until my face hurts and always look on the bright side of life.
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| Straight up the side of a rock! |
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| One sprout coming up! |
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| He made it!! |
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| Sprout on the trail |
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| Sprout climbing on rocks |
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| Sprout on the rock |
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| Hotdog special |
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| Mountain Man, Karma, Bubbles, Sprout, Whiskers, Disco, and Chicken Foot |
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