Packing to leave Woodchuck’s Hostel, everyone was off doing the own thing.  By the time I was easy to go they started to trickle back in to the hostel to finish packing.  I was sitting on the recliner when Kevin wanted to talk to me.  I knew this was coming, there was no way he could commit to this journey, or to finishing anything.   He started to talk and to be honest I got so mad, this was the second time I had planned something that we talked about for a while when he just bailed on it, majorly affecting my life.  There was no explanation just I was on my own, every following word pissed me off more.

I grabbed my stuff and told him we were done, I meant it too.  I immediately left saying goodbye to my friends and hiked out down the trail.  I was so mad, his so called documentary that he thought up a few weeks ago was more important than finishing this.  A few weeks before that he was all about cicada and before that was the PCT.  What really got under my skin was that we had worked out a solution to his financial problems of spending a week in town every so often.

I called home to inform them of the situation and they were shocked but also not, we had all seen it coming.  They asked why I had left him and I told them I couldn’t afford to stay at this point.  I had little money and finishing would be tough at this point.  What was I suppose to do, babysit him while he stays in town for weeks at a time? We’d never finish together or let alone at all with his shenanigans.  I was stuck between a rock and and hard place, stay with him and lose this dream, appeasing my family, or hike out and accomplish something only 15000 some odd people have done in the world, let alone in one shot.

I made the first four miles uphill in about and hour, catching up with Packer Hat and Hawk.  From there Packer Hat and I hiked together up to the shelter and just as it always does the rain just dumped down on us.  We were instantly drenched hiking along the ridge line.  The sheer amount of water coming down Mae the 8n side so my shoes feel as if I was walking underwater. Squish splash splash came from in my shoes and out. We talked about life and the day all through the rain.

The two of us got to know each other over the next 11 miles to the shelter. Talking about life, siblings and our reasons for being out here.  Everyone is 9ut here for the same reason but each has there own story of how and why they are here.  It’s apparent too that most people out here are stubborn and are looking for something to better themselves or thier life.  We made great time to the shelter, getting in soaked to the bone in just over four hours. Setting gap camp we hoped to dry off, I was asleep in minutes for the first time since georgia.