Great night of sleep at our campsite last night. Good temps. Got a reasonable start out today.

Saw lots of LT and AT hikers on the trail. Both section hikers and Thru Hikers. It seems that so many of them were 60 years old or more…several that started the AT early in the season (February) as well as flipfloppers (hikers that hike part of the trail in one direction and then the remainder in the other direction) . Had some nice chats with a few of them. One guy had a Zpacks ArcBlast pack, which I had yet to see in person…it was cool to check that out.

We also met a weird dude in his 50s who was in a shelter and in his sleeping bag at 2 on. He wanted to buy food from us, and asked several times if he could.  This was particularly odd, as he said that he had 7 days worth of food already and he was only 40-50 miles from Manchester Center. He also had a big knife and a machete – for who knows what….not.sure.about him.

No tough climbs today. There was a long stone stairs up out of a gap, but it was well built. So much of the final ten miles today was terrible mud. Poor area of the trail that either needs to be relocated or have drainage built around it or have board walks built over it, or the trail will continue to widen.

One of the peaks has a fire tower up on top of it.  We climbed it and enjoyed the blustery winds up on top.  Hadn’t been that chilly for several days.  Good views.

Phoenix and I are camped to the north of the Seth Warner shelter by a few miles. We are set up next to a lake that looks like it is dying. When Sweet Pea and I were here before  in 2011, there were people fishing out of it .  It was drizzling a bit while we were eating and both of us ended up sitting under our hammock tarps eating.  As I right this, the winds are blowing strong and the tarp is already rattling in the wind.

27ish miles.