Day 36-First Slack Pack

Waking up to this; is always, always better than a painted wall. Best $5 breakfast, scrambled eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and a biscuit. Then, a wall of loose leaf tea called my name. I decided on ginger, honey, green tea. Below you can see me with my sweet giant fanny pack (it's the top of my pack it comes off.) I felt light as a feather, man this is nice. When I got up to the tower I saw a deer, and then Pigpen showed up. The view at the tower wasn't anything spectacular because you couldn't go up all the way so Pigpen climbed up on top of a small building and took some photos. I hiked with Pigpen for a bit and talked and then we met Korey to go hang out at Black Rock lookouts and it was absolutely gorgeous. We hung out there for like 30 minutes it was beautiful. We were taking our time and enjoying the day and realized we still had a lot of miles to go to get our packs...we had no service to call to see what time the hostel closed, so once we stopped at the shelter we ran into Rocky and he offered to drive us there if we got there and they wouldn't come. Thank you Rocky! The rest of the walk after our descend of rock scrambles (thank god we slack packed today!) was perfect. The grade was level, the plants were green, the day was good.  But the day was winding down and we still had miles to go...we left a message for the hostel holding our packs. Some parts of the walk were so leisurely I walked with my poles above my head resting my arms it was lovely. Crunch time set in when we reached the shelter, had 2.7 miles to go, and it was 8:00...it was all downhill but still, sun sets around 8:30 and in the woods, it gets darker fast. Lynn was the only one who brought a headlamp so she left it with Wild Child at the shelter for Korey and we hiked towards Rocky's car. After realizing there was no way we were going to make it, I picked up my pace. I figured I have the most battery on my phone and can get calls out when Lynn can't, so I will go to the lot and call Rocky and the hostel so we are not stranded without our packs...I am bouncing off rocks, speed walking, shuffling my feet down the trail; and then I hear a louder hiker. It sounds like running, and Lynn is a quiet hiker as am I, it can't be Lynn when I have been pushing myself to hike fast. I look back and see this woman jogging down the trail towards me-damn you lady. Alright Lynn you jog past and I will try to follow! Thank god for having a LIGHTER pack (somehow I even had the heaviest slack pack.) We are jogging down the trail trying to beat the sun, and just like Lynn's  first fall on Blood Mountain I witnessed and saw coming...her next move I saw before it happened as well...thank god it didn't hurt her as bad as it looked. She totally face planted on the trail (sorry Lynn for ratting you out but you will probably never read it anyways!) I got in front of her to slow her down and we continued to shuffle jog along. I picked up my pace, it was now twilight in the woods and I heard noses of dogs/coyotes/wolves I had no idea. I started to run. I turned on my flashlight on my phone and ran down the trail, 2.7 miles my ass! Finally I came to the road and saw Rocky's red truck. I put my pack under his truck, left rocky a message and ran back into the woods with my cell phone flashlight to find Lynn. Huffing and puffing uphill was not fun, but luckily she wasn't far behind and we walked back to the gap together. About 20 minutes later we saw the light of Korey's headlamp coming down the trail. We all sat in the gravel beside Rocky's truck eating everything in our slack packs waiting for his arrival. Once he arrived we packed into his truck, decided to get a room at the Best Southern (Best Western is soooo better) we all quickly showered, and were too exhausted to even eat. We passed out around 11:30 which is 3 hours passed when I normally get in my tent...at least I was in a bed!