We had a nice lie in today. It started raining just after we woke up about 8am. Nigel made hot drinks, tea and coffee and then our breakfast porridge, he does all the cooking, I write the blogs! We sat in our sleeping bags chatting to Craig. He had his iPad with him and was showing us photos he'd taken from further down the AT. We have a lot of nice sections to go through ahead. He has thru hiked the AT and PCT previously. Meepel turned up at the shelter, she'd already hiked in the 6 mile's from the previous shelter. Nigel made her a cup of tea then she carried on hiking, we left not too long after her about 11am.
Yesterday was our longest day so far, today was our shortest, just 8.8 miles. It was the first time we needed to wear our waterproof trousers today. Those with our waterproof jackets were quite sweaty on the uphills but bearable as it was cooler. It rained until about 1pm and then remained damp and overcast all day with a chilly wind. My umbrella got used again!
The trail was fairly level to start with, only small ups and downs but then we had the usual longish but steady uphill. Another downhill then up again towards the shelter. We passed a huge tree that had literally been split in half. One half still upright and the other fallen over.
We arrived at Hogback Ridge Shelter about 3.30pm. Meepel and Caribou were already there. They had received some trail magic at the shelter, A local guy had left them some cans of lager and soda plus hamburgers and some fruit. They'd eaten the hamburgers but we had a couple of the soda cans and an apple and banana, we'll have the fruit cooked up in our porridge in the morning.
A group of 5 students on their Spring break also arrived at the shelter later on. The shelter only sleeps 6, there's us two plus Meepel and Caribou already so only space for two of them, three of them squeezed in the other two camped. It's still forecast a bit of rain overnight and tomorrow which is why we're sheltering again. There was still quite a chilly breeze, Meepel had already hung her tarp to cover the shelter entrance and Nigel added our groundsheet too to keep out some of the breeze. A nice blue/orange design!
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