I met Listener for breakfast in the lobby, which was, as you might expect from a cheap hotel offering continental breakfast, underwhelming. The shuttle up went fine, I sat beside Candy Crush, who is a retired baseball talent scout, and behind Moon, an older woman, and Midnight, a young man who I think is of east Asian ancestry (I only mention this because almost every hiker is white so it’s refreshing to see some diversity).
There were some amazing views today, the weather clear and warm enough for just a t-shirt. Listener and I walked together the entire day. He is slower than me going downhill but we’re fairly well matched going uphill, and his pace may be more sustainable than mine. Often towards the end of the day I tend to find climbs exhausting, and maybe that’s because I have a tendency to rush up hills early in the day, so I wear out my climbing muscles.
We arrived at the shelter at 5. Listener generally sleeps in the shelters but I really prefer the privacy and quiet of my tent. Tent sites at this shelter looked pretty bad, very slanted. I checked Far Out, the app we all use to find stuff on the trail. The comments for this shelter mentioned a flat area just north up the main trail. I wandered up and found an excellent flat tentsite where I’m now typing this in the dark.
I’m rising early tomorrow – 5:50 – so Listener and I can get a good start on the day and cover some major miles. We’re booked at a hostel in Hot Springs for Tuesday night so it looks like we’re going to be hiking buddies for at least the next few days. That is heartwarming.