Campbell Shelter --> Lambert's Meadow Campsite (6.3 miles)
So last night I joined the boys at the picnic table where they had stopped playing drinking games, but told me I had to drink Corey's choice of liquor- Jack. The boy would swear by the stuff and will get buried with a bottle. I swigged and chased it and then kept drinking through the night. We had just started making spaghetti, when 2 hikers-Ralph, 25 and Stephen, 22 came up. We had seen them earlier that morning in the parking lot. They worked for the ATC- Appalachian Trail Conference making sure that the AT boundaries were clearly marked and defined to prevent encroachments. They had never done too, too much hiking and weren't die-hard thru hikers or anything. Their motto was "our office is your desktop background." Anyways, before we knew it, we were all eating spaghetti/marinara and pepperoni and cheese and talking and swigging on some Jack. They appreciated the hospitality. Corey didn't end up drunk, Seth ended up too drunk, and I was just right. The other 2 took swigs, but didn't get drunk. Seth built a huge fire and we all had a really good time. Most social day so far in the trip and one of the best nights too-good Friday.
We fell asleep hard, but Seth was encroaching on my boundaries at 3 AM and rolled on my side of the tent waking me up. Then I had to pee. I asked him to come out with me and he told me he needed my warmth which meant he wanted the sleeping bag and then inquired about water amounts for the day. In sum, he was wasted and I peed alone. The next day we read his journal entry he had written when he was drunk and it was hilarious. His handwriting was all over the page and looked like a serial killer had written it with his left foot. It was hilarious and admitted in it only to being slightly drunk, but more happy. Drunk people can never admit to being drunk. They'll say no, I'm good, or I'm buzzed, or I'm feeling it a little. After deep/ 2 hours awake sleep, I got up to poop. With toilet paper in my hand, Corey says, "you're shitting me?" I was confused. He said, it's 8:50 on the dot. I had told him yesterday that every morning at work at 8:50 like clock-work, I went. Apparently, my schedule was catching up with me. Seth was acting crazy and loud and hungover, but we wanted to get going. Corey decided to go on ahead to do the hike to Tinker's Cliff and then the shelter because we had a feeling it would be in high demand. We scooted off the millions of stink bugs off our packs-they luv the crevices and our clothes and off we went. We went rather slow even stopping at the valley right before the ascent due to Seth's hangover. My knee was hurting still and I was limping a little trying to put all my weight on my left side. Tinker's cliff was cool. The AT leads you on the path on the cliffs and that was pretty cool. View wasn't as clear as it could have been, but pretty expansive with a body of water in view. It was cool seeing McAffee's from there. Standing today where we had stared at yesterday and staring today at where we had stood at yesterday. Very pretty. Then we went downhill for a good while-pretty steep but after passing some huge bolders- pass cool bolders often, we made it to the shelter. We met some thru-hikers there and they were the first ones we'd met. One of them stated that their favorite part of the whole thing was the beginning-Maine. Seth and I want to do the White Mountains in New Hampshire -220 mph-one of the top records for land winds in the world was recorded there. Anyways ended up our little mountain goat was .3 miles up a campsite near water which was scarce today. He was there with 3 men, Tom 60, Neil 33, and Franz 40? They seemed to be unlikely friends, so it made more sense when I found that they all worked for Bloom, no not the grocery store-they sell hinges, and they were doing a weekend hike. Anyways, Seth was hungover and barely spoke so sometimes, I felt some akward silence- not that he's always a chatterbox or anything. We all ate dinner at the picnic table. A stinkbug fell into my mashed potatoes and was struggling to get out. I was disgusted by this and corey was nice enough to trade bowls with me. Apparently the bug was bothered and sprayed his little spray on Corey's potatoes. Corey could taste it and spent some time adding jack (the torch i caried) to the taters for taste. Even with gravy, he could still taste the nastiness. Anyways, yeah we all sat around and the fire and chatted. It was nice. I told them the story of how Seth and I met in ballet. Corey had somehow never heard of the story, but we gave Seth the trail name, twinkle toes. The Austrian (Franz) was funny on accident when he called a woman's period, "strawberry week." It was hilarious. More funny stories and we went off our separate ways. I told Franz I wanted to get drunk with him. Tomorrow, we are supposed to hike 9 or 10 miles, then Corey goes home, Before he does though, we're all going to Home Place where tomorrow's menu is fried chicken, country ham, and roast beef with veggies. Our 3 new freinds are going there too. mmmm can't wait to pig out. Let's get these 10 miles knocked out.
PS. When I was telling the 3 strangers about NY, a white moth perfectly white landed right in front of me and just hung out there, The Alchemist says that butterflies are good omens, and my mom says that white moths are good luck.
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