April 21

We woke up at the Woodwards to PAANCAAKES!!! Holy crap they were amazing. So was the tea they had. And the pancakes. That was flippin' awesome. Doug also gave me a short story to read he had written after we had told him about a bear encounter. His was about a new-agey woman who moves to a Western NC mountain town and is shunned by the local community until a notorious bear incident. They had had bears around their house on numerous occasions. Da bears. We all piled into Dougs car and headed back for the trail, stopping in Franklin for a mini-resupply first. I got an avocado!! Woot. Starting again was hard but it wasn't a bad day. Went over Wesser and Wayah Bald which were both breathtaking. It actually snowed at one point too on top of Wayah, where we met some more thru-hikers. I remember meeting Pheonix up there.

Then got some trail magic! Some trail club had sent up a random tent in the middle of the woods with clementines and a cooler full of soda. It was wonderful. Ah met Iceman there too because I remember we talked college hockey - his son was playing at UVM. He really hauled ass. We pushed onto Double Spring Shelter and camped up on the ridge above it. It definitely got pretty cold but the sunset was beautiful. That was the first night in my tent alone. I think I wrote in my journal a bit. Hustler let me use his stove that night for tea I recall which is when I first fell in love with his stove. Would turn out to be the coldest night on the trail but life went on. Hustler also revealed that he sleeps naked. Can't remember the logic behind that one.