Adventures!

Calculator and I were awake most of the morning after the people walked by our stealth site.  The sun started rising around 4:45 am and I was starting to get nervous about being on the lawn of the hostel.  Cars had already started driving by.  I think Calculator felt the same way.  He looked at me and asked if I wanted to leave now.  Eddie Bear said last night that he would get up at five.

Calculator and I started rolling up our sleeping bags and sleeping pads.  We now could see the house where the lights came on several times last night, scaring us.  We had to walk past it to get to the van.  We figured since the police hadn’t been called on us the people would be asleep and not notice us.  If we got stopped we would just say we had camped up the trail a ways.

We made it back to the van and WD-40’s car was there.  He had slept in his car all night parked next to the van.  Eddie Bear had not taken a shower last night and decided he needed one this morning.  Calculator and I walked him down to the shower house on the way to the trail.  I walked to the lake and took pictures of the sun rise.

I was itching all over.  I walked back to the van with Eddie Bear who wanted to put his things in the van and get his back pack.  Chairman and Stickman told us that there was someone in the hostel last night and that a second couple came in at about nine last night which was about the time Eddie Bear had heard the couple get out of the car.  Since we never heard them go into the house we were stuck sleeping on the lawn instead of the porch.

Chairman had the day off today.  He and I drove down to Green Mountain General Merchandise and got breakfast and ate it outside on the picnic table while we waited for WD-40, Stickman, calculator and Eddie Bear to get there in the middle of their hike.  I had internet access so I worked on my computer blogging.

One by one the guys came in and ate breakfast and then got lunch to go.  They each sat with us for a short while and then hiked back to the trail.

Chairman and I headed to Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania after the guys had all come and gone from the general store.  When we got to Boiling springs we parked at the A.T. Conservancy and walked around taking pictures of the furnace that was there.  We took more pictures of the lake and then sat at the trail-head waiting on any of the guys to hike in.  We waited and waited.  When I was sufficiently tired of waiting I walked to the conservancy and asked about the boiling springs.  I was told that all I had to do was walk around the block and I’d see two different springs.  I got Chairman to walk with me.  It was a nice walk and I loved looking at the springs.

My camera battery died though just as I was going to take a picture of the spring.  We walked over to the next spring and looked at the clock tower monuments next to the second spring and in front of the other side of the lake.  They were to the soldiers in all the wars we have had involving the U.S.

I charged my camera battery while we waited some more for any of the hikers to come in.  Stickman finally made it around three.  I was about to pass out from hunger and asked if anyone wanted to join me at the cafe.  Stickman said he’d like to join me.  I told him I had to show him the springs on the way.  We passed the tavern on the way to the cafe and it smelled so good we decided to eat there instead.

Stickman said he thought he saw a mountain lion on his hike today.  We asked the waiter if that was possible.  He came back from asking someone else and they said it was indeed possible.  He has decided to tell people he saw one since it was possible and he could think of nothing else it could have been that he saw.

Lunch was delicious, a salmon BLT.  It reminded me of the one I had in Savannah, Georgia years ago.

We walked back to the conservancy and the others had hiked in.  I told them all to visit the springs.  They did.  Chairman and I drove over to Find out about a hotel we had heard about.  He was taking a week off to spend time with his wife who was to drive in the next day.  After finding the hotel to his liking and realizing there was a pool and a dinner theater he made reservations to stay for three days.

We drove to the trail-head at Route 11 and waited for the guys to get there.  I felt like all I did was wait around today.  Still, I thought Boiling Springs was such a cute little town and it made me feel so happy that it was all worth it.  Next time I visit, I will make sure I don’t have to wait for anyone.