We had been warned that Round About was an early riser, but the Sassy Bear combo are just as early. We could hear them at 6. Bunny has been saying she wants to regularly get up early, here was her first test. She failed. We got up at 7. Even with our late start, we were not the last ones packed up to leave. That honor went to our new Patches stand-in, Mud Bug. We can always count on her to be the last one to break camp from here on out. Like Patches, she hikes on her own schedule and often ends her day after dark.
Round About, Sassy, and Bear left about 15 minutes ahead of us, but we caught up with them at Warner Hill about 3 miles up the trail. Bear is a retired NASA mechanical engineer (NOT responsible for O-rings). I like hiking with this group for several reasons: we are all about the same age, they are fun, they have great senses of humor, they occasionally laugh at my jokes and not just at me, they make Bunny walk faster, and, most importantly, I am the youngest in this crowd. I get to make geriatric jokes about the old folks. It’s just like Friday night wine club all over again.
I did have some concerns about walking behind Round About. She had bought a dozen eggs from the Cookie Lady last night; 6 fresh and 6 hard boiled. She has eaten all but one in the last 12 hours. I’m afraid that she is just an ignition source away from being a trail disaster. Bunny had to stop for her mid morning coffee release so we fell behind. The first one we caught up to was actually just an unattended pack. Round About had dropped her pack and ran up the hill. The eggs chose to not convert to gas but took a more solid exit route. We could see a white glow coming from the trees above, so we hiked on to give her privacy. Unfortunately, a group of about 20 day hikers passed us heading in the opposite direction. Unlike Samantha B, they did not get a full frontal, but got a full moon instead.
We all diverted for a lunch break at Kay Wood Shelter. Bunny and I like to take advantage of picnic tables for lunch. Everyone else was ambivalent on the side trip until we got to the shelter and they saw the privy. The egg exit routine passed down the line. I am thankful that I was raised Catholic. We oppose abortion in all forms, including little oval chicken abortions.
Round About had found an Irish Pub in town and mentioned having a Reuben and a beer which was the driving motivation for the final two and a half miles to town. Bunny took the lead and practically ran up the last 400’ climb. I always like it when she hikes with other women (even adulteresses) because it brings out her inner beast. When she’s like this, I’d be willing to bet she could take out any woman 5 years older than her that is overweight and bedridden in a “no holds barred” grudge match—she’s a lover, not a fighter, so she needs some “slight” advantages.
I could hear Bear and Bunny talking about her stuffed bunny mascot that she carries with her. He asked her its name and I said “Pervert” because he was always sniffing her underwear last year when she hung it on the back of her pack to dry. Bunny didn’t like that and started calling him Burt—Burt the Bunny. Bear said he couldn’t carry a bear mascot because it would be too heavy. Just a couple minutes later, I got to the railroad tracks and saw a small stuffed bear hanging on the crossing sign. Bear now has a bear mascot to finish the trip with (albeit a bit worn and dirty—more like a thru-hiker).
They walked with us to Tom Lavardi’s house where we were going to camp for the night. Sassy and Bear are going to zero here tomorrow so they have reservations at the only hotel in town. They offered to let us take showers but Bunny turned down the offer. We showered just 5 days ago and we’re going to take a zero in another two days so we can wait. My germaphobe wife has officially become hiker trash. We agreed to all meet for dinner after THEY showered (believe it or not, a shower sounded good to me even if I put the same dirty clothes back on, Bunny is going primitive).
We walked up to their hotel and saw Freeman pass us in a car. We hadn’t seen him for a couple of days. We talked to him and the driver of the car (who turned out to be Tom Lavardi) and found out that Freeman was suffering from heat exhaustion. He had gotten to the Cookie Lady a few hours ahead of us, but had overexerted himself and passed out. Tom went to pick him up and bring him to the hotel where he passed out again. Today, Tom took him to the emergency room where he had blood work, x-rays, and was given IV fluids. He’s ok now, but was in heat exhaustion. He’s going to relax for a few days before heading home to Switzerland. We’ve been worried about him since Nonna left. He was obviously pushing too hard. It’s not just us feeling the effects of heat.
The Irish Pub is closed until Tuesday. There’s another sandwich shop in town that has Reubens, so we meet there only to find out that they are out of saurkrout—probably for the best with all the eggs that have been consumed in the last 24 hours. Bunny and I end up with burgers. Echo showed up as we were finishing up and told us about an ice cream shop down the street. I tried to show restraint, but Bear and Bunny were all in. Only Round About opted for beer instead. It was like Europe all over again, I didn’t want any ice cream, but I wasn’t going to buy one for Bunny and not have one myself. The sacrifices a good husband must make to keep peace and happiness alive.
EFG