Trail Names all around! (well, mostly)

6-15-09 day 13
start: Peter's Mountain Shelter
end: Rausch Gap Shelter
daily mileage: 17.5
total mileage: 153.3

Today was the last day on the trail for Eric and Emily... or, as I should say, Pogo and Mama Bear. So far Emily is the only one with a trail name given to her by a hiker we met out here (Siesta dubbed her), whereas I dubbed Eric "Pogo" for no reason my conscious mind can think of. We've been meeting some great people - last night, another two section hikers and a few through hikers. Our mileage has been so variable recently that we definitely aren't staying with anyone too long, but we suspect we will soon.

At the bottom of a huge hill today we found some delicious "trail magic." Someone (a "trail angel") had left a cooler full of pop, gatoraide, animal crackers, fruit roll-ups, and all kinds of other things. It was a delicious break. It's been amazing to me how many people have had to work so hard to make this trail happen... the volunteers that built and maintain the trail and the blazes, and the fantastic shelters we sleep in every night. Each of them undoubtedly represent hundreds (or thousands) of man-hours worth of work, and undoubtedly thousands of dollars worth of money. On top of that, trail angels in most towns that drive hikers around, and people that leave random snacks for us on the trail? Awesome!

We found a huge pile of coal just a mile or so from camp today... it was at least 20 x 60 feet at the base, and probably 15 feet high at the top. We climbed up of course and marvelled at it for a while, then we got to the shelter. Met up with a new friend Sleddog, who is finishing her flip-flopping through hike tomorrow!

Travis has officially dubbed himself "Sea Monster." He's started drawing awesome pictures in all the logbooks. :-)