May 22
End: October Mountain Shelter
Miles: 24.6
Total: 3414.7
I was none too quick to get hiking in the morning. I lay in my sleeping bag and snacked on more Nutella and graham crackers as well as peanut butter and regular crackers. The other hikers were not particularly fast either, and Sundog didn’t feel good.
Eventually Brillo packed up and left, and I was close on his heels. It may have been sprinkling a bit, but we moved pretty fast. When we got to a road Brillo stopped and I went on ahead.
The rain was light but even light rain can get annoying if it lasts for awhile. I hiked on, trying to keep my morale up. I went through some swampy areas that had nice boardwalks, and several low areas with lots of mud. Those parts of the trail usually had small sections of boards in place which were not really sufficiently long enough to keep my feet out of the mud.
After awhile I passed Upper Goose Pond Cabin, which was apparently open. I was not about to go a half mile off of the trail, but it was good to see that something was open on the trail after feeling too far ahead of the mass of Appalachian Trail hikers to count for a long time now.
I got lost in thought and found myself at the top of Beckett Mountain. Yogi, a fairly famous thru hiker, had signed that day and was complaining about not seeing other thru hikers. I hurried on to fill that void.
Eventually I did come across her and introduced myself. It was cool to meet an expert on hiking. I believe that she wrote the book on the Pacific Crest Trail, and is a Triple Crowner twice over. I pushed onward, happy to have finally put a face on the name I had seen in the trail registers for weeks.
I arrived at October Mountain Shelter with plenty of time before dark. I could have moved on, but I didn’t feel like it. There was a group of women there hiking for a few days, and Phlegm, who was finishing a thru hike which he started the previous year.
I enjoyed talking with them, and was happy when Moses showed up. He had done a lot of miles in the past couple of days, attempting to catch up with friends of his. We had a good time at the very nice shelter. Once again I did not feel like cooking dinner, but I snacked on more peanut butter and crackers. Moses and I slept in the loft, and I rested well after an easier day.