Summer 2019- Canopus Lake to a Hiker 4th of July Party

Date: July 3
Total Miles Today: 8.6

Total Miles this Summer: 214.3
Total Trail Miles: 1014.7

Around the campfire last night, Sage and I received our trail names. Sage is Avocado, and my trail name is Onion. The basis of these names is that Sage had an avocado she carried for about 5 days as it ripened up ( ridiculously heavy thing) and Sage accuses me of buying an Onion every chance I get. (Fair enough).  Onions are great...they don't go bad, they go well with everything. 

We have seen so much wildlife on this hike. Harmless snakes like those one...as well as less harmless ones.

Sage saw three wild turkeys up here shortly before I arrived.

Beautiful views are not as plentiful as NJ, but are still fairly common.

Spot the fawn. We did. It stood their motionless while we passed.

Never one to pass up a good spot for a break, Avocado enjoyed the break while I caught up. This is good..she should be faster than me on the downhills. 

RPH shelter, a really nice one.

We cooked a dinner and rested at RPH. Hiker hunger has set in ..both of us ate heartily in spite of the heat.

Yummy. The amazing thing is the water was Crystal clear after filtering. Water filtered, fed and cooled off, we decided to continue. A Deli is 5 miles down the trail, so we hiked on in anticipation of a good Hoagie.

Only 26.8 to CT. If we keep hiking we will be there soon.

Another good spot for a break. The climb alternated between sweltering heat in the open places, and cool shade.

Forget CT for now. Forget the Haogies.  We saw a sign inviting all hikers to a 4th of July party...so we called it a day and we are hanging out at Bill and Amy's house. Do we know Bill and Amy? 

Now we do...every year they host 40-60 hikers for a 4th of July cookout/ party. The sign invited hikers to come on the third, so we walked up the trail and said hello. Food, cold drinks, showers, laundry...everything a hiker needs. Bill is a former thru hiker and helps to maintain the trail in this area.

Taking a vacation from our vacation. This is part of hiking the trail...if you blow past every diversion to get in your miles...you miss some of the best experiences.

As an added bonus, Advocado's feet will benefit from another break.

Bill and Amy have a Pint of Ben and Jerry's for every single hiker. 

So we are fed, clean, comfortable and anticipating a great 4th with the AT trail community.