August 14

We got to sleep in this morning - or rather Beth did. I woke up at 5:45 as Patches was packing up. I said goodbye as he left. Yet another trail friend I will probably never see again. It seems to be the way of the trail so far. Start making friends only to say goodbye to them in a few days.

Our hike this morning was short. Just 2.7 miles to the road. The sun was out and the forest was cheerful. Little bits of sunlight dancing down through the leaves. Most of the morning was downhill to Clarendon Gorge. There was a suspension bridge over the gorge dedicated to a hiker that died there (before the bridge was built).

We walked 1/2 mile down to the Whistle Stop Restaurant for a good meal of steak and eggs - well at least I had that Beth wasn't as hungry so just had eggs.

The only others at the restaurant were other hikers. We sat at the table with Easy Rider and Snowberry for a short time and talked.

Then it was just down the road another 1/2 mile to the General Store and our food drop. We once again had too much food since we were going faster than we expected. We dumped our leftovers into the hiker box. The hikers that were there with us (I forget their names, but their dog's name is Frodo) loved our leftover Luna and granola bars, and took the summer sausage for Frodo.

Then we called home to let Joel know where we were and our expected time we were to get home.

Then it was back to the Whistlestop for a last ice cream for Beth and a root beer for me. We had spent a LONG time at the general store. We had to wait almost an hour for the phone. Another hiker was there and his family kept talking and talking. So we didn't get on the trail until after 2pm. Not that it mattered. We had all the time in the world and only one more mile to hike today.

As usual looking at the map Beth saw that the elevation profile was an easy hike up. The contours did not agree - they said steep. It seems this part of the elevation profiles weren't updated when the trail was rerouted. The trail is now very, very steep and between two cliffs going up on each side. It was pretty with the ferns hanging out from each crack in the wall.

We were slow and sweaty, but finally got up and over to the Claredon Shelter. Texas Jack was already here. He is a section hiker and likes to play the harmonica.

This shelter has a different feel from most of the other shelters. It has a large clearing out front that is grassy. It reminds me more of a house in the woods because of that.

Eventually lots of thru-hikers showed up. And they brought hot dogs with them. We had a weiny roast, but I got too stuffed since I had already eaten dinner.