Sunday, May 1st

The Shanty at Blue Mountain (1246.7 mi) to George W. Outerbridge Shelter (1260.0 mi)

Hiking Miles: 13.3

Total Ascent: 1347.8 ft

Total Descent: 1756.6 ft

Total Grade: 230.9 ft/mi

Steps: 31,872

I woke up to the light coming through the bedroom window, a cat sleeping at the foot of the bed, and quietness. It’s a great feeling to have, especially sleeping in comfort and feeling rested. I finally got up out of bed at 5:30 am and went downstairs to the kitchen, taking my journal with me and trying to be quiet, while eating a slice of cold leftover pizza. I relaxed in the living room to journal however after only getting a few words down on paper, Lynn came down the stairs to start a pot of coffee.

I introduced myself and we started talking. I drank several cups of coffee (It was so good!!) and we continued talking for an hour. She defrosted a lemon blueberry muffin for me and I had it with my coffee. To my surprise, it turns out that Lynn is not a veterinarian at all. She was a retired paralegal and now runs a hostel from a home that she grew up in along with her 4 siblings (Lynn being the oldest). She talked about how she bought the house, added to it, and also made several renovations.

Sean came in from the Air BNB (glorified shed) located in Lynn’s backyard and sat with us. Lynn reheated the beans Sean ate from yesterday, and also prepared him eggs and some toast with Jam (the jam had mold at the top and Sean just scraped it off and proceeded to spread the jam on his toast). Stevie came down around 8 am and Lynn made us both scrambled eggs, bacon, blueberry pancakes and orange juice. It was a great start to the day. Soon after, as we were getting ready to leave, Lynn went outside to feed her 15 cats that lived outside. She told us that over time, she trapped all of them and had them fixed. She fed them everyday and they were happy to live on the grounds.

As we exited, Lynn sold us some organic coffee packs – and she recommended that when I return home to brew 1/2 regular coffee and 1/2 Decaf (that is what she did) to reduce my caffeine intake. Lynn dropped us off at the Thunder Lodge just a little past 9 am and Stevie and I sat at the outside picnic table and finished our pizza and onion rings. We eventually headed back on trail at 10 am. Lynn told us about how we would enjoy our hike over a stretch of rocks called the “Knife’s Edge”, which we did. It was supposedly similar to the Knife’s Edge at Katahdin, but perhaps a bit more rockier.

At around 1 pm, we stopped at the Bake Oven Shelter hoping to replenish our water. I walked about a mile to find the water sources posted on Far Out while Stevie waited at the shelter, but I was unsuccessful in locating either of them. And for whatever reason, I had left my phone at the shelter so I couldn’t let Stevie know I was still searching for water. He got concerned and started looking for me in the event that I may have gotten hurt but I returned before he got far, however without water. To make things worse, there were wasps at the shelter so we decided to move on.

After about 11.5 miles, we were directed down a “new” AT path that was not yet updated on the Far Out app. It was supposedly much more scenic than the old AT section of trail. It was here that we discussed that the best moments we experienced on trail to date were the times we actually were off-trail, at hostels and at towns where we met new people and experienced cool sights and foods.

Overall, we did a casual hike today, only going 13.5 miles to the George W. Outerbridge Shelter to spend the night there. We met River Rat, a retired Marine that was hiking SOBO, Full-Tilt (he tilted over and broke his trekking pole), and Hard Way (a Jim Croce fan) who was a finite element analyst on a 1-yr sabbatical. Full-Tilt and Hardway were hiking together and were both from Michigan. There was also a guy who claimed he lived down the mountain who barely had teeth and was getting an operation soon to remove a tumor from his right shoulder. There had been rumors on trail that a homeless person was staying at the shelter, however I was a bit doubtful it was him. He hung a white plastic bag on the side of the shelter for hikers to throw out their trash and he offered to remove it when he returned back down the mountain. He was cooking a steak over the grill.

During dinner, River Rat was explaining how a fire had broke out in the mountains only a few miles from us. It was so intense, the fire department closed off part of the trail (that we likely would be hiking in the morning). River Rat ran from the fire once it started. Whereas he was hiking SOBO, he was fortunately on the side closest to our shelter. Apparently a group of kids started the fire by throwing rocks, creating sparks amongst dried out brush. We’ll find out more in the morning, and if a detour was established.

I video chatted with Teresa, ate dinner and went to bed early, as it started to rain and it continued through the night.