Day 45: Easily Distracted

Woke up early to a beautiful sunrise. The sun was bright and there was no fog in the valley, then there was very thick fog all of a sudden, and then the sun came up over it all. Very cool.


Early start. Neutron and Achilles were off before 8. Xan and I left just after. Nice easy morning for walking, minus about a half mile of a steep climb. Many mountain laurel plants were blooming... We made it to a shelter and had an extended lunch break. I hung my tent to dry, and Neutron and Achilles took a short nap. After more than an hour, we took off again.



Not even a mile later, we saw signs for "Captain's Hiker Feed." Four signs in all, then an arrow pointing to a side trail that lead to the stream. There was a zip line with a pulley system to the yard across the stream. I whistled over to a guy and asked about the signs. The feed was tomorrow! Darn.

Well, the guy I whisteled at, Slack, is a thru hiker who has been hanging there at Captain's house for three days. He helped me and Achilles get across the stream with our bags to have a soda. The hiker feed will be the 6th annual, and Captain is expecting close to 70 people tomorrow! (including family and old hikers friends). And he's gonna have volleyball, a limbo contest, cornhole, other games and lots and lots of food.

So, when Xan and Neutron finally showed up, and then the storm clouds built up, and Captain and Slack were so nice..... Welllllllll... we decided to stay.

We had only hiked 11.9 miles yesterday and today only 7.7. Ha! It's nice to be flexible. I just hope we can still make it to The Homeplace by 6 on Sunday and Daleville by Monday!!

This feast/party is gonna be worth it, though, I think. And chilling here with Captain's family is very nice And it IS memorial day weekend....

We helped the Captain put up one of the tents and got it up and staked right before the storm hit. It POURED for a good 30 minutes with thunder and lightning. Then it let up for 45 minutes, and then it poured again. Glad we weren't out in it.

Lots more hikers ended up showing up all the way until 11:35pm, and they expect loads tomorrow. Maybe all our friends will catch up...? Such hospitality from Captain and Shirley. I got to shower soon after 15 of us feasted on spaghetti and salad and brownies and cake, and there's talk of laundry in the morning. I hope we can manage to leave sometime tomorrow... These miles aren't gonna hike themselves...

(7.7)


-- Posted from the trail...

Location:The Captain's House