This wet, soggy, damp morning, every step I took kicked my butt. Rockhound and I weren’t helping each other out, either. We were both cranky and feeling the 24 miles we did the day before, even though Karen and John provided a great breakfast before we took off today. Yesterday’s 24 hung over us as we went struggling up and down the PUDs today.

What do you do when hiking stinks? Stop hiking! We hit the Thistle Hill Shelter at 12:30 and decided to call it a day. We spent hours staying dry and just reading & talking. Skyline and Sundance stopped through. I met Little Fish, a Phys Ed instruction at Mt. Holyoke who knew Heather from the field hockey team (Her real name is Tina Lee). Condor, Einstein, and Rockhound are staying with Mr. Bamboo Bob (SOBO) Recon & Nana K as well. Nana K is a flip-flopper (a person who starts in the middle then goes to both ends) from Worcester, so we’ve had some good conversation.

There is another thunderstorm rolling through right now. As Condor says “I don’t like hiking in thunderstorms because they make me mess my pants!” It’s a good night to be hanging out in the shelter and sleeping well!

Met a number of SOBOs today. The trail down Katahdin opened May 18th, so we’ve been seeing the first hikers. It is really exciting to finally have some hikers moving in both directions as SOBOs are great sources of information.