Day #36 - The Family

Miles: 8.8 to Indian Grave Gap camp

It's almost 9:00 p.m. (LATE for a hiker), so I'll try to hit the highlights and be brief. I ate three donuts and a waffle in the hotel lobby for breakfast. Then we packed our gear and watched Turner & Hooch on TV. I'd never seen it before but I love Tom Hanks. I had to show Blacksmith which bottle in the shower was the shampoo. Last night he washed his hair with bar soap because he didn't notice either bottle of shampoo. Needless to say, his hair was a waxy mess. He was about to shampoo with my shave gel before I corrected him. Apparently he can't see anything without his glasses on.

We called Miss Janet to get a ride back to the trail but she got stuck behind an overturned vehicle and didn't show up for over 2.5 hours. While we waited, I ordered a new pair of shorts from Mountain Hardware. I'm trying to get them shipping to the post office. We'll see if they can do that. We finally caught a ride with the Uncle Johnny's shuttle, but we ended up getting a much later start on the day than we had anticipated. We saw Little Foot at Uncle Johnny's. He has poison ivy all over his face and legs, so he's taking a zero. Smart move! Poor kid.

It was hot today! We took a break at a stream and I ate the leftover pizza I packed out from last night. We saw two deer and a rabbit while hiking today. When we stopped later at Curly Maple Gap Shelter, we found True Story and Wiki there! Long lost friends! They are waiting there for the rest of the group to catch up.

We stopped today at Indian Grave Gap, a campsite just before a road. I ran down to the road (sans pack) to try to spy the water source and noticed a trail magic vehicle packing up. Doh! We just missed it. Blacksmith decided to hike on without us, but we stayed at the campsite. I found some sort of animal skull by my tent site and packed one of the jaw bones into my cooking pot. I'll carry it with me until I can send it home with my parents at Trail Days. It's funny what some people are willing to sacrifice ounces for. Longhorn showed up and decided to camp with us. Then the Kallin family (www.kallinfamily.com) joined us. The parents thru-hiked southbound when they got out of college 12 years ago and now they are hiking with their 9-year-old boy (Robin Hood), 7-year-old girl (Cartwheel), and dog Orion. Those kids are adorable and so fun to have around! They get along great and seem to love hiking. They hike even bigger miles than we do! Robin Hood broke logs so that we could have a fire tonight. For such a scrawny kid, they sure are feisty!

We walked down to the road to filter water. There was trash everywhere, but we found a good spot. I feel like a hobo so often out here. I've come to prefer spring water over water out of a faucet though. It tastes much better, even if it does sometimes have dirt or floating debris in it.

Cartwheel started telling us about animals they've seen on the trail, including a donkey! It was just wandering down the trail by itself. They also talked about a pet rooster they used to have that was really aggressive. While Cartwheel was talking, Robin Hood slipped in, "Then Grandpa slit his throat." Kids say the darnedest things! We giggled to ourselves at how casually he slipped in such a morbid comment but continued to listen to their stories. It's great having them around, but they hike so fast that I'm sure they won't be around us for long. Today was also our biggest mileage day ever! So many great things today!

Best Thing: Talking with Cartwheel and Robin Hood and finding a skull.
Looking Forward To: Nice weather tomorrow and our highest mileage day yet!