5/22/2017 281.2 Delamar Mountain Road to 303.3

Today was a day filled with Magic, trail magic that is.  It seems like that is happening to us more and more often. Not a whole lot to report on the first part of the day except that we hiked early and fast. Our plan was to get to Splinters cabin and rest in the shade in the hottest part of the day. 

On the way Sherpa and I got in an argument because apparently, according to an unbiased source, I was interrupting her. I hiked ahead in a huff for a couple miles then we met at the last water source before the 5 miles to Splinters. All’s well that ends well. 

Right before Splinters we came across some guys carrying a giant bag of chip bags, Starbuck Vias, and caramels. I grabbed a Via, Sherpa and another hiker Totes, grabbed caramels. Soon after we saw a cooler on the bank of a beautiful stream with beers on ice! We grabbed a beer and went down to the water to eat lunch and cool off in the water.  There was a gaggle of other hikers there including Rise, Shine, Totes, Beve, Land Mammal, Tastey, and others. 
We had a really enjoyable lunch then headed to Splinters for the rest of our siesta. We had already hiked 17 by the time we got there so only a few miles left to be on schedule to hit McDonald’s for lunch on Wednesday!

At the Cabin we talked to a new hiker named Baloo who said there was a giant rattle snake snaking its way around. It didn’t take too long before we spotted it. It was huge! 

After naps and a few minutes on the internet we started hiking. Hiking from Splinters along Deep Creek was unbelievable. We were half way up a deep canyon with a beautiful deep stream below with waterfalls, shielded from the sun by the canyon walls.  We hiked just passed our goal of 22 and pitched our tent at the first flat spot we could find. 

It was very buggy and our tent was broken so we danced around while Sherpa cooked our dinners and I repaired the tent poles. She scarfed down her dinner and I ate in the tent once we got it up. It was hot so we slept initially on top of our bags, but once we cooled down we slept like little hiker babies.