Bubbles Day 24 (Wednesday, April 20th)

We had a great start to our day.  We had an easy hike into Caledonia State Park.  Hiking past the plants on the way into the park reminded me of being in Florida.   Specifically, Myakka State Park.  Totally crazy since we were in the middle of Pennsylvania and not Florida! There were also giant pine trees.  GIANT.  As in, put your arms around them and you only get halfway around the tree!

When we got to the state park we sat for a few hours and charged our phones.  They were almost out of juice.  We were saving the batteries in case of an emergency.  It was great to catch up with our families.

We walked across a trout stream.  Dad has been trout fishing there and caught his limit!  I talked to a fisherman for about 10 minutes about his gear and fishing.

This is the stream where dad caught his limit!

It was so beautiful!

We also walked past Quarry Gap Shelters today.  It was beautifully maintained and I could tell that the caretaker was passionate about what he did.  He loved his shelter.  He had a sundial, painted ducks inside the shelter, and potted plants.  We really wanted to stay there but we knew we needed to keep walking because it was only six miles from where we started.

Sundial at Quarry Gap Shelters

I really enjoyed my hike today, other than my feet hurting.  I’m looking forward to my visit to REI this weekend!  I just keep thinking, a few more days until I get new boots, I can do this!

The trail was serene

Evergreens are my favorite!

An exciting thing happened today!  Just last night I was planning an epic game of capture the buff and today I captured my first buff!  Actually, as I was hiking down the trail, I found a buff and picked it up! It looked like T-Bone’s.  When I caught up to him at camp I returned it to him.  Even though he hadn’t even realized he lost it, I’m 1-0!!

Another highlight of getting to camp was I biffed it in front of T-Bone and sprained my ankle again.  I went down like a sack of potatoes!!

That night it was only Sprout, T-Bone and me at the shelter.  We were just a happy little family (T-Bone doesn’t know!)  We sat next to the fire, talked to T-Bone, and I told him that he is my BFFF (poor guy!)

I was really on a natural high all day.

Bubbles Day 23 (Tuesday, April 19th)

Happy birthday Rachel!!

It took us awhile to get ready in the morning.  We slept in our tent at Deer Lick Shelter.  We were very happy we decided to stay in the tent because the shelter has carpenter bees in the walls, bzzzzzzzzzz!!  

We were moving slow this morning and spent some time playing with our GoPro.  We took videos and messed around.  We both named each other a different trail name.  I named Sprout The Destroyer because he literally destroyed our dookie trowel (our poop hole shovel).  He called me Single Batch.  He asked me what I wanted for breakfast and I told him that I wasn’t hungry.  While Sprout was gone taking a dookie I made coffee.  As I was pulling things out of my pack I grabbed a packet of peaches and cream oatmeal.  I was like, huh, this is good.  I proceeded to make myself a nice little breakfast.  When Sprout came back, not only was he upset because he broke the trowel, but also because I didn’t make him breakfast!  That Peaches and Cream oatmeal was Goooooooooood.  I offered him the last bite but it was like a slap in the face.

The Destroyer

We've been looking for T-Bone on the trail but had not found him yet. We were being silly making Go Pro videos about how we were looking for him and he strolled into camp!  It was a sign that all things on the trial happen for a reason.  If we had gotten up and out early we wouldn't have seen T-Bone.  We ambushed him with our GoPro camera.  We were a little jacked on cowboy coffee.  T-Bone left and we finished getting ready to go on the trail.

The Antietam shelter was next to two beautiful streams.  There were two brown trout swimming in the stream that Sprout spotted.  We were excited!  We looked for worms and got the line ready to catch and release.  Two day hikers walked up and we showed them.  Instead of being quiet they got really loud and scared them away!  We were NOT HAPPY.

We walked past Tumbling Run Shelters and ended up stopping.  We got to meet the caretaker, who was an older gentleman. He was passionate about what he did.  He had just removed the toilet from the privy, scrubbed it clean, and put it back in.  He doesn't get paid to do this.  It’s all volunteer work!  Thank you!!!  I really wanted to be the first one to take a dump in the clean privy but it wasn’t time.  Another thing that was cool was one shelter said “snoring” and one said “non-snoring!”  The only uncool thing about the shelter is that Sprout and I would be separated if we had stayed there (I would have been in the shelter that was rockin’).

We would have loved to stay at BOTH of those shelters but we were on a mission!!

There was a lot of uphill hiking after we left Tumbling Run Shelter.  My feet weren’t hurting because most of the hike was uphill.  Thank goodness!

By the time we got to the shelter I ran down the hill because my feet hurt so bad that I wanted to just get to the shelter and put my crocs on.  At the shelter was Captain Underpants (we met him at Antietam shelter earlier in the day), T-Bone, and Vinny and Lizzy (arrived after us.)  We had a nice fire and talked about all sorts of things.  One thing that sticks out in my head.  I decided in the near future that I’m going to plan a giant game of capture the flag (buff) with all thru-hikers in the woods somewhere.  Talk about an adrenaline rush.  I can just see, Class of 2016 playing capture the buff, at Happy Trails next summer!

We camped under pine needles and it was beautiful.  The shelter maintainer there carves wooden spoons and leaves them on the trail.  I was looking EVERYWHERE (under the shelter, on the floorboards, in the ceiling) but I didn't find one.  Bummer!

Cowboy Coffee

Antietam Shelter

The Sprout watching our fish

Tying the hook on our line