Day 6: my fave thru hikers so far

Miles: 10 or so
Water: over 2l hard to say
Dog age: insufficient data

We are kind of hiking now. We did ten today. Prolly go easy tomorrow, Jamie's ankle did not fare well on the rocks today. Doing some laundry at waynesboro, and enjoying a luxury night at a hotel.

There are all kinds of people on the trail. Still universally friendly. It is disconcerting to be around so many people so willing to help. But it is infectious. I gave a spoon to a stranger. (Her name is ranger, stranger ranger!)

Of the many types of hikers I've seen  So far are the crazed loners. (I'm sure I'll be covering the other types along the way, don't worry the moss post is still coming)

We have seen two, crazed loners so far. They shun the shelters, normally just stopping in to say hi. Then melting away into the woods to set up a tent. The CL seems to just want to be left alone, and do crazy miles.

The first one we met was an old guy with a Swiss mountain man beard, I swear it curled upward. He was from Quebec and barely spoke English.  He didn't know the word for north.  He passed us in the rain the other day, wearing his tent fly as a jacket over his body and pack. He looked like a giant wearing a castle  as a suit.

The other CL just goes by stealth. He came into camp last night pretty early. Dropped his pack, then walked the two miles into town and back in about an hour. Came back into camp, offered everyone hostess childcare cupcakes that looked like baseballs, signed the shelter guest book and then disappeared to his tent. He cruised by us at an alarming pace around 10 am today. We will never see him again. When I looked at the shelter book, instead of a cute message, he wrote only a single word. "Stealth"

I aspire to be a crazed loner.

Today's flower is a purple thing with a woody stem. They are all over the place.