4/30/15   –  Random Campsite  – (Accidental 18.6 miles)

The trail was beautiful today! We are starting to see a change of landscape. We had a few ups but nothing to huge. We hiked across a huge open field for about two miles with beautiful three-sixty views. The sky was a perfect blue with white puffy clouds only complimented more by the green grass.

We lunched with a few veteran hikers by the name of Mad Dog, Wondering Bill, and Pilgrim. These fellows are in their 50’s and 60’s and completed a thru hike in 2006 meeting each other while on trail. They now meet every year to hike a section of the trail. We picked their brains with tons of trail questions. Their words of wisdom: “Take it all town by town and remember that it is all a mental game”.

We arrived at camp early and ready to get settled in before an on coming rain cloud caught up with us. Darwin went to inspect our water situation after the guide told us water could be questionable at this spot. After about thirty minutes, he returned with empty bottles and very pissed off. Water was a no go here. This led to our extra miles for the day. We left a note for other hikers informing them of the water issue and carried on.

At this point it started to sprinkle and as we got closer to our new destination it was full on rain. We ended up camping a little past the shelter as it was already packed with rowdy hikers we had been trying to avoid.

Darwin and I pitched our tent under a few Rhododendrons. As the rain slacked off, Roub and Tornado Tim arrived at camp. After dinner by an amazing fire, Roub attempted to hang his bear bag only to get his line hopelessly stuck. As I bore witness to many failed attempts by the three of them to remove the line, the rain started up again. This led Tornado Tim to a rash decision, he was going to climb the tree. Tim half climbed half shimmied up the partly dead tree in the dark while it was raining. From our prospective on the ground, Tornado Tim took on the appearance of a lizard; apparently he had done similar stunts like this before. As we watched in awe, Tim removed the line. We now refer to him as Tornado Tim the Lizard King….. Long live The King!