Summary: Graymoor: 1410.1 RPH Shelter: 1429 Total miles: 18.9 Last night, we got some others excited to slack for a day, but they got scared off perhaps due to our lack of planning. Duck Fart attempted to see if we could throw our packs into one of the Graymoor friar buildings but the complex seemed deserted. Since we didn't have anyone to watch our packs, we packed one bag with valuables and threw the rest of our gear in the other bag and threw it into the shelter rafters with a note: "Back later - Huggables and Yeti XOXO." Besides slackpacking for the day, Emily also decided to try the hike with no superfeet since she thought they could be folding up funny to hurt her toes. As you may have surmised from the miles above, the day went absolutely great. But, back to the day summary.
*Patch, Tyler and Duck Fart at the Graymoor Pavilion
Dean was hopping back on the trail today after his girlfriend's family reunion. He was going to meet us on the side trail to Graymoors at 9:30. Meet us he did and there was much rejoicing. Also, Patch had a couple of buddies visiting who were going to hike through the weekend. They then made up the sweet hair club with Patch's bushy beard, Falcon's long straight hair and beard combo, and Broccoli's curly mane (tied back for safety.) This meant we had seven, G-Wag, an older guy we leap frogged with all day made eight, and Wild Card, the elusive hiker and master mapper finally made nine. As nine is an important number in (nerd) lore, we assigned everyone Lord of the Ring character titles. G-Wag is probably still unaware that he was Gandalf for that day. At around one, we stopped for lunch in a clearing with a water spigot attached to a nearby building. A man, Auggie as we later found out, rolled up and asked if we could help him with his coolers so we could share cold lunch time beverages with him. Auggie lives locally and often brings lunchtime beers, sodas and iced teas for hikers before he goes on his afternoon four mile jaunt for his health. After lunch we really started making miles and split into little sub groups for chatting, since yelling across seven to nine people can be difficult. We stayed like this until Patch and his friends decided to check out the concession stand by a lake we passed. Duck Fart, Dean, and the two of us headed onwards until RPH shelter (adorable) and chatted briefly with two sobos who gave us some skittles to help our brains when we were all having some trouble making sense.
*RPH Shelter
*We thought these were flowers but turns out it is a flag garden
Finally, we took an Uber back to the deli a half mile from Graymoor. We ate more deli food and, while eating, met the Traveling Foxes, 'S' and Bugs. They were heading to Graymoor that night as well, they headed off ti Graymoor before us as the four of us finished our meals.
When the four of us got to Graymoor, we immediately learned that our stuff was indeed safe. The shelter was not nearly as wild as the night before (besides a very loud and aggressive dog), we set up our tents and invited the foxes over to chat. The Australian Traveling Foxes have indeed traveled a lot, by plane, bike, and foot. The AT adventure was a sudden change from their original plan to bike through Patagonia since they decided a break from biking might be a welcome change. They were great and inspiring to talk to and we can't wait to check out their online material. They parted ways around ten and we all headed into our respective tents, ready to try Emily's feet with no superfeet again, and a bit of weight.
