The trail magic continued when, two miles after leaving the shelter, we came upon a cooler of snacks and sandwiches and even s’mores supplies. We sure have been lucky lately. After where the trail magic was, we had another six miles to the town of Woodstock and then another six to where we planned to stay for the night, a place called the Cabin on the top of a mountain that was supposed to have beautiful views.

Unfortunately, soon after leaving the area with trail magic, my knee really started bothering me. It slowed me down to a pace that was slower than even normal walking speed. The downhills were the worst, with each bend of my left knee causing excruciating pain that had me screaming out loud and practically in tears. Neon and Shuffle were so comforting, slowing their own paces so I wasn’t walking alone and not even showing the slightest bit of annoyance. I hate admitting or showing pain so I was trying my best to push through but this was unlike any pain I’ve experienced before. What upset me most though was that this was happening when brenna was with me. I just wanted to be able to walk with her and enjoy the day but this was really putting a damper on that. Somehow I pushed through the six miles, very very slowly and arrived in Woodstock to find that Cool Blue and Wolf Bird had waited for me. Again, I’m so lucky to have such great hiking companions.

We’d heard about delicious pies a woman sold in Woodstock so we ventured to her store to check it out. There was only one left, blueberry peach, and four of us split it. It was amazing and a great distraction from a tough morning. The boys were anxious to get going to hike the next six miles to the cabin (I don’t blame them since they’d waited an hour or two for me) and the pressure was on for me to make a decision. I could push on to walk the next six miles, but that was basically committing to walking all the way to the next town or Rutland, 23 miles from where I was. On the other hand, I could stay in Woodstock (a guy right next door to the pie lady lets hikers stay in his barn for free) but that would mean splitting from the group, and also that I’d have to figure out what to do about my knee–stay in Woodstock or try to find a way to Rutland or something else altogether. I was so conflicted and wanted to push on so badly. I hate giving up and always strive to push myself but after much internal debate I had to listen to my body and decided to stay in Woodstock where we were for the night.

Brenna, who is an amazing friend if you didn’t already glean that, didn’t hesitate in staying with me. This would make her hike the next day a huge 23 miles but she didn’t even bat an eye. Even though I told her it was fine if she went (and I would have been fine) it was nice and comforting to have her with me.

We’d heard great things about The Barn, owned by a guy named Dan Quinn who all hikers seemed to universally agree is an amazing human being. Dan wasn’t home when we got to Woodstock but leaves his doors open so we were allowed to use his bathroom and kitchen. Brenna and I hitched the couple miles into town so I could get phone service to look up doctors in Rutland. We also got some beers and ice cream and nachos and some much needed relaxation time while in town. We hitched back–a woman stopped for us, found out she wasn’t going our direction and left, then three minutes later came back and took us anyway (and was an awesome and adventurous older lady who’d hitched across the country and done tons of international hiking in her lifetime). Once back, we set up our pads and sleeping bags in third story of the barn and chatted sleepover style for over an hour until we drifted off. I awoke in the night to a terrible skunk smell, which I originally thought was my own stench. But it got stronger and I think a skunk had snuck into the barn somehow and sprayed right near us, but luckily we weren’t actually directly sprayed.