It was a late morning for us. I just couldn’t get moving. We woke up at 8:30a and were out of camp by 10:15p. As we were leaving, we saw a “No Camping” sign posted… oops. It was too dark when we were dropped off, we never saw it.
We walked a bit and came across some trail magic. It was the happiest welcome we had yet. As we were coming down the side of the mountain, 3 or 4 little children yelled out, “Hikers! Yay! Hikers! You are doing a great job! Woo! Hoo!” They were little kids, from age 3 to maybe 8 cheering us on. My smile just got bigger and bigger. By the time we got to the bottom of the hill I was laughing and giving the kids high fives. I needed that. My body is tired and there are sad things happening at home that I wished I could be there for the people that we love.
The owner of Outdoor 76 was organizing this Trail Magic. We had sandwiches, cookies, fruit, Gatorade, etc. We talked to him some and told him about our ride into town. He told us that Sam is one of the top 5 most interesting people in town. If he’s only 1 of 5 … who the heck are the rest?!
Later in the day, we hit trail magic #2. This time it was a younger retired couple who are full time RVers. He had hiked the AT the year before. He was a prior service Marine. Also sitting with us were 2 young Marines, 1 retiring Marine Colonel, and Ben who is Air National Guard. All of the Marines got together for a “Semper Fi” photo. I’ve been amazed at the amount of military that is on the trail. It’s an incredible amount. We’ve met every branch with the exception of the Air Force. Ben and I joke that any Air Force would hike the AT by staying in hotels every night. The majority of military on the trail are Marines… of course. To them, this must be like the Hilton.
After our visit, we had a hard push up. We saw it on the map and spent the day dreading it. It was the last couple of miles and on top was camping. Filled with Mountain Dew and Cola, we made it. In total, we hiked 11.9 miles and got into camp by 6:20p.
Waiting for us was a group we had met our 1st and 2nd day, but hadn’t seen since (Brock, Jordan, Kyle, Alan “GQ”). Grey Eagle (the retiring Marine Col.) stopped there as well. They started a fire and we all ate dinner around it, sharing stories. We stayed out later than normal because we were all visiting. It’s was 8:40p when we went to bed… almost hiker midnight.
-ansel