Saturday, May 5, 2012

It's Raining Newts

We woke up to it raining pretty hard early in the morning. At one point, we heard a large crash. I thought it sounded like our bear bag had fallen, but didn't think much about it and went back to sleep.

Later on, the rain stopped, and Swamprat brought the food bags to our tent. He told us that a huge branch had fallen just inches from where his hammock was hanging! He had not been touched though.

We started hiking, and immediately spotted the bright orange newts on the trail again.
We haven't seen them in a while.


The rain just seemed to bring out these guys! We had to be careful when we hiked so that we would not step on them. We must have seen 20 or 30 as we walked.

We arrived at a shelter and I went to use the privy. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. Matter of fact, I wish I had taken a picture. It was just a toilet mounted on a wooden platform with no screen or roof or even trees planted around. If you used it, you would mostly just be on display for anyone who hiked up. I decided to pass on using this one.

Around lunch time, we came upon Laurel Creek and took off our boots to sit and eat. A car pulled up with Michigan plates, and came over to visit. They had brought a container with the most wonderful homemade organic cookies and offered them to us. The guys really enjoyed them. They were huge!

Santa and Gnome (trail names - not the real Santa) also showed up and got cookies.

We hiked on and the next 7 miles was a really great hike. It ended up with a cooler full of Cokes on the trail left there by the parents of another thru-hiker. Nice end to the day!

We were sitting on a bench in front of the Bland Senior Citizen Center trying to decide where to stay when Keith casually pointed in the direction of town, and when he did, he noticed a truck going in that direction. At the last second, he stuck his thumb out, and the truck came to a screeching halt. It was the weakest attempt ever at
Hitchhiking! Santa and Gnome came out of the woods just then, and we all piled into the bed of this truck. Santa really does look like Santa, so it was funny, because the kids in the backseat of the truck were freaked out that they had just picked up Santa!

We ended up having to wash laundry in the hotel room sink, and do our grocery resupply at the Dollar General. I was hoping to find a light flannel blanket, because it's been so warm lately, but they didn't have any. However, the lady at the register told us that Snuggies were 90% off!!! Sweet! At no other time would I be excited about this, but Snuggies sounded perfect! We paid $1.10 for each one. Photos to come! Did you know Snuggies come in Camo?













- Steady and F100

4 comments:

Elise said...

Love the newts! The rain is definitely bringing them out. And I can't wait for the snuggie pics!

Silver Bear said...

Guys I look for your post dayly. I sure do wish I was out there.

Silver Bear

Keith and Linda Geraghty said...

Thanks, Silver Bear. So glad you are enjoying the adventure!!

Daniel Rice said...

I must see a camo snuggie!