Sunday, May 23, 2010

Day 40: Magical

Up and out. Set to arrive at the feast right at 10. Perfect!! After a quick, steep climb right at the beginning, it was a beautiful and easy walk for just about all 5 miles to get there.



And then we were there and they were so happy to see us!! It was a group of friends who got together to organize it, and two of them had hiked the trail. They put on an awesome spread, and we didn't know what to do with ourselves. We ate. I ended up having two hot dogs with chili and slaw, a slice of blueberry bread, a few lemon cookies, a hard boiled egg, a handfull of nutty/honey candy, strawberries, a brownie, nachos, a Dr Pepper, a banana, a tomato/cucumber salad, macaroni salad, a Sunkist soda, a bluberry muffin, an orange, a bottle of water, and a bag of Cheetos. (and this was nothing compared to what the guys ate...)

Oh yeah. We feasted. And there were chairs set up around the campfire. So nice! And they'd brought a box of other things (batteries, floss, safety pins, tp, etc) for us to rummage through. Very very cool. And helpful. There was a group of 15 of us enjoying every second if it, and the weather was holding out! We stayed for FOUR hours just hanging out, eating, digesting, then eating again. Neutron even took a nap.

It came time to leave, and it was hard to say goodbye to the people and the food. We were allowed to hike out with as much as we could carry, but I think most of us were still too stuffed to think about more food. I swiped an apple.

Luckily, the hike onwards wasn't too bad. And the weather was still holding. We all leapfrogged a bit until we came to a road 7 miles down. Apparently, there was more trail magic as a guy had pizza. I'd gotten there too late (which was fine), but we hung around for a bit on the side of the road, as vagabonds do...

Walking on over I-71, Xan, Neutron and I tried to get truckers to honk, but to no avail. It was only 2 more miles to the shelter, but there was a STEEP climb to get there. Finally we arrived and set up our tents. Then it started to sprinkle. Xan and I went down [the steep hill] to get water and got caught in the brief thunderstorm. Ugh. Wet socks and poncho, but that's all. Sat in the shelter while the storm passed then dried out by the fire. I ended up burning a hole in one of my socks!! Whoops!


The whole gang showed up again, and we all chatted while we ate. Left Field brought a raw steak and cooked it on the fire. We passed it around like cave people and each had a bite. Perhaps we've been out here too long...?

Today was a magical day. Full bellies and good times.

(14)


-- Posted from the trail...

Location:Helveys Mill Shelter

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Another great post...I have enjoyed hearing about your adventure from day one (actually before day one). Thanks for sharing!

Mike