Pancakes were to be had and plenty of them. We had come for the blueberry pancakes and Flailing and I aimed to eat as many as we could that morning. I put down a hefty ten while he put down a dozen. Making our morning move slower than normal. The deliciously sweet pancakes filled our bellies weighing us down. Which was not a good thing, we still had many miles to hike for the day. Taking our time we collected our things and proceeded to walk off the morning weight over the next two miles.

Crossing the road we hit the climb and the pancakes hit me, right in the stomach. I felt so sluggish and over full on the lone viewless climb up the mountain. The only reward for our climb was a fairly easy ridge to another mountain then along hike down. These mountains gave way to a nice pine needle covered forest floor. The spring coming to our step form the duff below. The only thing we walked around was roots and the occasional rock or three as we enjoyed the pine forest for a change.

The two of us talked as we usually did, somehow the day was different without Earthling, not quite the same. She made our duo a little more complete, a little more fun, a little more everything. We both missed her and hoped her slack packing would go well during ghe day. She had some 30 miles to do to catch us tonight in town and we were well on our way to the cookie ladies house. Here we were told a nice woman would make cookies for hikers and let them sit in her yard to rest. If you wanted to, you could go pick fresh blueberries and see the farm.

Getting to the house we were tired and enjoyed our cookies with a soda.  Sitting there we talked to the south bounders and found out about a slack pack opportunity to town. Slack pack another 10 miles sure let’s do it we thought. While I rested and talked with the other guys, Flailing looked around the property and found an old plane among a few other things. Ironically he never picked any blueberries while we were there. Instead he mad his typical Ramen bomb for lunch, Ramen and potatoes. 

Fed and back on our way we took off back to the trail head, we hadn’t gotten far before a nice gentleman saw us walking and offered to give us a ride into town. Neither of us were hitching or looking for a ride so we accepted the trail magic for the day. To town we went and found ourselves by the community center. In town we ran into some familiar faces, Deja Vu and Twiggs as we made our way to the hostel. Getting our chores done ,showers shopping we rested at Tom’s house. Here he gave me a much needed haircut in the only style that was allowed, a Mohawk. We started to worry about earthing as the clouds grew darker and we hoped she was alright. We wouldn’t hear form her till late that night while we were in bed. She had gotten a late start and made it to the cookie ladies house.