Sunshine!

Last night in previous hostel:

I am reading a lot of the beautiful well-wishes from lots of people – some I haven’t heard from in years – and in my mind I am decorating the inside of my tent with them. I am making my room. I like this one a lot: “Don’t be pushed by your problems, be led by your dreams.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Thank you. What an amazing network I have.

3/20

Oh, what a glorious morning! Sunshine, pure sunshine. We have missed you! It’s beautiful out here. I couldn’t see any of it, but now I can. I remember why I’m doing this. This morning I paid and thanked the Hiker Hostel, poked at breakfast as usual, and packed up. I made a few adjustments – tossed the extra bowl and YakTraks (?) in the hiker box (more like hiker pantry), put in some chicken/noodle, chicken/rice dinners, and repacked everything. ACO and I waited outside for everyone, and a big group of us piled into a van. We got dropped off first, at Horse Gap, and were again on our way. It was pretty windy in the morning, and Sassafrass was a bear of a mountain, but the views were pretty stunning. Just … amazing.

We even saw a few signs of spring! We had a light lunch at Gooch Mountain Shelter, then decided to press on 1.6 miles to Gooch Gap, which shaved off a good chunk for tomorrow. We’re camping here – ACO in her hammock and me in my tent. We got settled,then walked around in search of a good bearbag tree. We tried a few, then snagged one – might as well knock that out before dinner/dark. I took a nap and am trying to get used to “normal” sounds around me. I just bet I’m going to sleep very little and yell at an imaginary bear in the middle of the night. Test one, right? We plan to camp tomorrow, too.
Until later. Gonna go put my rainfly up
…
Well dinner was good. I finally ate! Chicken noodle soup was great and I finished nearly all of it – 2 serving Mountain House thing. After we put everything away, the sun was starting to fade, so we brought logs over to the other campfire – our non-gay gay couple is not here. We hung out with those people for a bit. We arrived in the middle of a Chronicles of Narnia reading – so cute. We caught sight of another campfire and thought perhaps our couple was there, and went to investigate. Nope. Some kid named Will, with his tent entirely too close to his fire. He asked for our opinion on this; we said we’d rather him not burn down tonight. We went back to “our” campfire and got warm, talked, or sat in companionable silence. I really like hiking with someone. ACO is great and we have a good time together. Definitely nice to have a buddy along for awhile at least.

So far, my tent (and/or the temperature) is considerable warmer than the last night on the Trail.
– Ent