7-17-18

AT miles hiked today: 7.8
Total AT miles hiked: 797.8

We put on wet clothes in the morning and were hiking by 7:15am. We hiked over wet and slippery rocks, roots and wooden plank walks which are the most slippery and dangerous of all. We saw moose droppings but I haven't seen a moose yet. I hope I do. People are having bear sightings, too, but I haven't had another one. I wouldn't mind that either.

We climbed up and over Bear Mountain and met Mountain Woman with her dog. She offered some help later, maybe a ride or a slackpack. That was a nice offer and we may just give her a call. Then we came down some very steep and extremely slippery rocks to get to the road that leads to Killington. We had plans to meet Mark there at the Whistle Stop Cafe. He and Cindy had offered to take us back to their house again and help us slackpack Mt Killington the next day. So even though I was jealous of the hikers swimming in the gorge below the suspension bridge, I thought about ice cream, air conditioning, a shower and laundry and suddenly I was ready to head to town. But first I had to try not to fall down the steep mountainside on the extremely slippery and wet rocks. Luckily the new shoes my Aunt Lorrie bought for me really worked out (thank you Aunt Maryann for helping, and thank you for the shoes Aunt Lorrie). The tread had worn off my old shoes and I would have been much more likely to fall without my new shoes. They are the Brooks Cascadia 7 shoes again, but this time a men's size 9, so the color is different. The reason for the change is that my feet are wide wide and tall but not long, and men's shoes have a little more volume than women's shoes do. They are really working out well so far. I broke them in by getting them wet and muddy immediately, and I am very happy with them.

We got down the mountain and Mark came to pick us up at The Whistle Stop Cafe so quickly that we didn't get time to eat there. Others who ordered breakfast said it was very good. We got showers and started laundry then Cindy made a bunch of spaghetti, sausages and garlic bread for us. It turns out that women hikers don't eat as many noodles as the guys do and there was a huge bowl of leftover pasta. We sure ate a lot, though. I definitely carb loaded for our big day slackpacking Mt Killington tomorrow. I'm mostly packed up, and now I need to get some sleep.