It rained unexpectedly a little last night. So the outside of my tent was wet from rain, and the inside was a little damp from moisture. It wasn’t too bad though. I hung the rain fly from my tent in a nearby tree to let it dry while I worked a little and cooked and ate breakfast. By the time I had finished everyone had left camp already. Everyone except Mulligan. He likes to sleep in a bit. I packed up my stuff, refilled on water, told Mulligan I’d see him up the trail, and headed out.

It wasn’t too long before I ran into Early and Goat, whom I met a few nights ago at a shelter. They get up pretty… early… and start hiking. Like 5am early. They get to camp early too so they get the best tent sites or spots in shelters. What’s that saying, “the early bird gets the worm?” That’s definitely true out here too. I passed the dad and daughter section hiking duo too. We chatted for a bit before I carried on up the trail.

Mulligan caught up at some point and we hiked with the younger group we camped with last night. We passed the 1/4 mark. That’s 1/4 of the AT mark. So figure about 550 miles. I like to focus on the number of miles completed and not how many more are miles left ?

The terrain was pretty nice. Some ups and downs, passed by some creeks, some more farms, and even a river. We arrived at a shelter late in the afternoon. Early, Goat and another hiker I hadn’t met was there. His name was Dragon. Early got his name from getting up early. Goat got his name by climbing hills quickly…. like a goat. I didn’t get how Dragon got his name ? The younger crew caught up after stopping for a lunch mid-day. We discussed plans to push on.

We came down into a ravine with a creek running through it. This was going to be our home for the evening. It was really nice. The creek was close and easily accessible for resupply, and the sound was soothing. I knew I’d slept well. The only challenge was there wasn’t a good secluded place to go to the bathroom. So Chickadee and Lavender hiked on to find another spot to camp. The rest of us setup camp where we were.

We got a fire going and all sat around cooking and eating dinner and catching up on the day’s events. What’s amazing is, we all are hiking the same trail, the same section, the same day and around the same timeframe. Yet we all have different experiences. I found a dead snake and a dead cow. Which was a little concerning. I thought if I saw anything else dead today it might be a sign ? One of the other guys almost had a snake fall on his head out of a tree.

It was me, Mulligan, Sweat Cicles, Riggs, Grizz, Ollie, Bullseye and Brooklyn. We carried on for a while and discussed plans for tomorrow before retiring to our tents for the evening. I caught up on some work and writing before falling asleep listening to the sounds of the creek close by.

Please Donate: https://fundraise.showhope.org/hikeforhope