The Sprout 19 (Friday, April 15th)

We woke up today at 6:30 and started packing up.  All was good until we made our first stop about two miles up the trail.  While sitting down for a break Smudgy Cheeks and Bubbles got into a fight.  It was intense and Smudgy Cheeks turned around and walked south down the trail.

The perfect place to stop and rest our tired feet

After Smudgy Cheeks left we took it slow because Bubble’s feet were hurting and we are sad that the Three Amigos split up.  We started as a team and wanted to finish as a team.  We knew that there was a chance that one, or even two of us, might get hurt along the trail, and need to end our hike, but we didn’t think it would happen like this.  However, as sad as we are, we knew that we couldn't sit around and be sad all day.  We had to keep going because we are on a mission.  

Bubbles LOVES evergreens!

It's great walking through all of this history!

We hiked up to the Washington Monument.  Unfortunately, the monument was closed because lightning struck it last year and they are renovating it for safety.  As we were talking I heard leaves rustling and saw a huge black snake.  As I was taking video and pictures of the snake it moved extremely fast toward a rock.  Suddenly, a chipmunk took off!!  He got away. The chipmunk won today!  Even though it was awesome seeing the snake, I got chills because I know there are snakes everywhere on the trail.  I decided we are going to be sleeping in our tent with it zipped all the way up from now on!!!

The snake was about five feet long!

Washington Monument built in 1827 atop South Mountain

The rock scrambles are going to be everywhere pretty soon!

View from the Washington Monument

At one point in the day we got a phone call from Johnny (one of Bubble’s brothers) saying he was in the area.  Having Johnny call us, and meet us on the trial, really helped us get back into the groove of things.  It helped us to get out of our funk because we knew that Johnny would help bring our attitude back to where it needed to be!

When Johnny met us in a parking lot he had food for us!  We had some drinks and ate Subway like homeless people!  We ate it so fast he even tried to give us his sub!   We had cookies and chips too.

We got into the car and tried to look for Smudgy Cheeks.  It was a big let down when we found out that he had already left.  

It felt so weird to be in a car!  It’s only been a few weeks but I can’t remember the last time that I went so long without being in a vehicle.  We went to Walmart and resupplied.  We were so happy to get our little bottle of Sriracha and more food.  Johnny wasn’t planning on camping with us so he bought a sleeping bag to cowboy camp in front of the fire, like a champ!

We finally got our Sriracha

While walking from the AT parking lot to the shelter we came to the bridge where Poppa Lip had a bunch of Boy Scouts on a hike.  His Scouts spent a lot of time getting trucks to honk.  It was good because we felt like kids again and we got a lot of cars and trucks to honk!

Poppa Lip's favorite bridge

We were so looking forward to our evening at camp with Johnny.  When we got to camp we set up our tent, started a blazing fire, and spent time catching up.  

Bubbles and Johnny

I love it out here!

Day:  19

Miles hiked:  7.5

Total Miles hiked on the trail:  184.7

Bears:   0

Butterfly:  7

Chipmunk:  2

Crawfish:  1

Deer:  20

Really Big Dog:  1

Mouse:  1

Nest of bugs:  1

Skunk:  1

Snail:  1

Snake: 1

Squirrels:  11

Turkeys:  4

Turtles:  107

Woodpecker:  1

Bubbles Day 19 (Friday, April 15th)

Today was the day I lost a brother and gained a brother.  Johnny saved the day!  Smudgy Cheeks and I got into another huge argument.  I was talking to him about my expectations for him on the trail and tried to explain to him what I want to get out of this hike.  He was not listening and felt like I was attacking him.  He ended the conversation by calling me some nasty names (in front of T-Bone which was super embarrassing too).  Smudgy Cheeks said he is leaving the trail, turned around, and left!  I was upset because we couldn’t communicate to each other how we were feeling.  The dumbest thing was this fight happened at a camp site (along the trail) that had free showers.  We didn’t even take advantage of them!

I sat on top of the mountain and text my dad and sister to try to figure out what to do.  They both assured me that Smudgy Cheeks is an adult and could figure it out.  I sat up there and cried.

We left the top of the cliff and continued on the trail.  We stopped at the Washington Monument off the trail.  It got struck by lightning last year so we couldn’t go up in the monument.  Three hikers were inside of the monument (they were trying to get out of the storm) when it was struck.  They were all fine after visiting the hospital.  This is the oldest Washington Monument in the US.  It was pretty fascinating.

Washington Monument

We also saw a 4.5 foot black snake.  It was our first snake.  A chipmunk barely got away from the snake too!

We rested for a minute and got back onto the trail.

Lucky for us, Johnny text me and said, “I’m in the area if you want to meet up.”  I was down so I told him to please come and meet us.  He met us with some trail magic!  He had Subway with subs, cookies, chips, and pop!!  We also enjoyed some beverages in brown paper bags.

In the meantime Dad heard from Smudgy Cheeks and knew that he was at the Frederick, Maryland bus stop.  Dad called Johnny and told him.  We quickly figured out where the bus stop was and tried to rescue Smudgy Cheeks from leaving the trail.

When we got to the Greyhound we asked around and were told that they had seen Smudgy Cheeks and he hopped on the 1:30 bus heading towards Cleveland.

I was crushed when we found out that the bus had already left.  I quickly realized that I could sit, cry, and let myself be upset or have a great time with my brother Johnny, who I never see.

Johnny drove us to Walmart because he decided that he was going to spend the night with us at Pine Knob shelter.  We bought a bunch of food for the evening and Johnny bought himself some camping supplies (a $10 sleeping bag!)  He slept out under the stars next to the fire ring.  That’s called cowboy camping!

Bubbles and Porterhouse (Johnny) 

Dad said Johnny’s trail name should be City Slicker.  He was wearing his nice work clothes.  Johnny thought he had a pair of tennis shoes in the back of his truck but they were actually golf shoes that were a size too small!  He was on the trail wearing a collared shirt, khakis, and golf shoes! His real trail name is Porterhouse.

Trying to make trucks honk on a bridge

We stopped at my dad's favorite bridge over the AT. He hiked here with his Boy Scouts. We had a lot of fun trying to get the trucks and cars to honk!!

We spent the night laughing.  T-Bone came over and we had a drink together.  We got to know him a little bit better which was great.  We also met two guys from Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  We invited everyone at the shelter to join us at the campfire but only T-Bone came over.

It was a great end to a stressful day!

Porterhouse drinking his first fresh spring water from a mountain spring

Making a stick for roasting hotdogs over the fire

Porterhouse was extremely prepared with his knife!

Beautiful sunset

Lost another nail today!

Bubbles Day 18 (Thursday, April 14th)

When I woke up today I was happy to see that even though my fingertips are burned it’s not as bad as I thought last night.  They still hurt though.  I also started the day by giving myself a foot massage.  The sunrise was incredible so that really helped to improve my mood!

Jeff and I got into a huge fight this morning.  I told him he couldn’t just leave a fire going without helping to put it out.  He was really mad and stormed up the trail.  When I got to the shelter this afternoon he acted like nothing happened.  I hope this is the end of our fighting!

There are two shelters here.  The new shelter is beautiful.  The old shelter is by the spring and had a low roof but it still looked cozy to sleep in.  We decided to sleep in our tent (we do most nights because it’s nice to have privacy).

Cozy old shelter at Rocky Run Shelters

I heard from Ox today.  He is on the mend!!  He thinks he’s going to be able to get back on the trial in 7-10 days.  This is great because he originally thought that he would be out for months!  He was so helpful to us when we started and I can only hope for a positive outcome and hike for him.

We met four people at the shelter today.  Finn and Daniel were a father and son duo who were section hiking during Finn’s spring break (he lives in California with his mom).  Daniel lives in Baltimore.  They were the nicest, kindest (I know means the same thing but there needs to be a word that means more than nice) people.  They offered to let us use their pot and stove if we wanted to and we had great conversations with them.  Unfortunately, they were heading southbound.  We would have loved to camp with them again.  Shout out to Finn and Daniel!  You’re the type of people that make the trail special!

T-Bone was also camped out at Rocky Run Shelters.  T-Bone worked on the West Virginia Turnpike for 34 years before retiring.  He is a super nice guy.  Hopefully we will get to camp with him again!

The last guy we met was a guy named Woodchuck who is a section hiker.  He told us his favorite trail story.  He said this was real trail magic.  I might have the trail names mixed up but here is the story:

Inchworm and Happy were hiking the AT in New England (not with each other.)  Inchworm became disoriented and lost.  He started to become hypothermic.  The hypothermia made his brain go crazy and he took off his backpack and his warm winter coat.  He was stumbling through the snow and was at the point of dying from exposure to the elements.  Luckily, Inchworm stumbled into Happy’s campsite, running directly into his tent.  Happy realized what was happening and ripped Inchworms soaking wet, half frozen, clothes off of him and stuffed him into his personal sleeping bag.  Then, Happy ran to the nearest shelter to get help and a rescue team was sent in.  Inchworm survived.

The following year both Inchworm and Woodchuck were on a thru-hike.  Inchworm was telling Woodchuck the story of how a man saved his life on the trail the year before.  After telling the story he said the man who saved me is named Happy.  Woodchuck had just spent some time with Happy and knew that he was only a shelter ahead of them (he could tell because of the shelter log books.)  Inchworm immediately packed his things, threw on his pack, and hustled up the trail to meet the man who saved his life!  They ended up hiking together for a while (Woodchuck could tell by the logs).  He said this kind of thing happens on the trail because it’s a small community and everyone becomes connected.

Bubbles and WoodChuck

Bubbles and T-BONE