whiskey hollow shelter to bears den

i slept well in whiskey hollow shelter except i have confirmed that my new nemo sleeping pad has a leak. i wasn’t quite sure the past two nights, but i kept waking up with a soft pad. i thought maybe i didn’t fill it up all the way, but last night i filled it up and made a mental note. this morning however my hips were on the ground. i’m not sure what’s going on with nemo. this is really disappointing.

the five of us, bugs, lyric, maestro, rocket, and i all breakfasted and packed up. before we left we did some push-ups and planks. i had been avoiding these morning activities because my pectoral muscle was still healing from my fall. a couple days ago i realised it wasn’t constantly hurting, and a day after that was the first day i sneezed without significant pain. i took it easy and only did 10 push ups, and i’m glad to report that it didn’t set me back any.

the trail brought me to the rollercoaster, an infamous length of trail due to it’s elevation profile, and the bear’s den, where we were to stop for the night was about halfway through it

we took off from the shelter, i was in the lesd. the morning was a little frustrating because the trail was pretty overgrown. it was also absolutely covered im poison ivy. i tried my best to not touch any.

i arrived at the intersection of a blue blaze to a shelter and stopped for m morning snack. maestro came along shortly but decided to move on. lyric arrived followed by bugs and rocket. we agreed to meet up a few miles before the 1000 mile mark.

i hiked to a river crossing for lunch, maestro was already there. i ate lunch and the rest of the crew arrived.

we hiked a couple more miles to the 1000 mile marker. bugs pulled champagne out of her bear canister. she has a habit of carrying way too much heavy food, so this was right in character. lyric and i produced bacardi nips that had been given to us a few weeks ago. maestro put on 1000 miles by vanessa carlton and we had a mini celebration in the woods.

i hiked a handful more miles to the bear’s den. the bear’s den is an interesting place. it was a home of some rich folks who styled it to be a like a castle (because rich folks do weird shit like that). at some point it was acquired by the ATC, and is now a hostel. for $35, you get a bed, a shower, laundry, a pizza, a pint of ice cream, and breakfast in the morning!

the tramily all arrived and showered and we decided to walk the half mile to the bear chase brewery down the street. on the way, bugs’ ride passed us, and did a u-turn and joined us at the brewery.

we ate, drank, and ended up in the trivia match, though we didn’t do very well.

bugs’ friend shuttled us to bear’s den, we all hugged bugs, and she left with him.

two additional photos from today: