Miles today: 17.0
Total miles: 1451.2
Deltas parents drove us back to the trail in the morning after we had breakfast and 8am milkshakes. His parents had brought all this extra food and supplies with them in hopes of providing trail magic but Delta and I are the only Southbounders around so they were disappointed they couldn’t give away more food. Nonetheless, they planned to hike a mile or two with us this morning and as the four of us headed to the trailhead we heard noise from the woods behind us. New Southbounders emerged! We met Smooth, a guy in his 20s from Georgia, and Ninja, a girl around 30 who I’d actually met before way back in Rutland VT. Deltas parents were elated to be able to give them trail magic and ninja and Smooth were equally excited to score tons of free food. It was also exciting for me and delta to run into new people as its been just the two of us heading south for a while now.
After providing trail magic, we then got on trail and after walking about a mile and a half uphill with us, deltas parents said goodbye to us. They were pretty winded from the hike and I think it made them appreciate even more what their son set out to do.
The rest of the day flew by and was relatively short milewise. I got to the shelter pretty early and Delta made a fire so that was nice. Ninja and Smooth stayed at the same shelter as us and it was so nice to have company for a change! I can’t remember the last time I stayed at a shelter with other Southbounders.