It was another bad nights sleep. I don’t know why the hammock is doing this to me, but I barely slept last night. At one point I even got up, walked through the rain, got down my bear bag, found a power bar and ate it. But not even that was enough to put me to sleep. 

So I was a bit grumpy when I got up. But after breakfast, an instant coffee and some stretching I was feeling good enough to hit the trail. 

As promised, I left camp moving slowly. Plodding along, one foot in front of the other. It was another tough morning as Viking, rocket and an older woman who I know has foot pain all passed me. But my knee was just not right. It wasn’t quite yelling at me, but it was definitely giving me stern warnings. 

I climbed up slowly and carefully. Taking my now customary small and cautious steps. After one sharper reminder from my knee, I stopped to stretch and repositioned the brace on my knee. As I started up again, I felt an immediate shift. I took a step, and then another. All of a sudden I was free. 

I remained walking slowly and cautiously but now I was able to move to a more reasonable level of slow. I passed Viking, and then the woman. I was in such good spirits that I told her, a woman I’d never actually talked to before, how great my knee was doing and fist bumped her as I walked by. 

I was practically skipping by the time I caught up to second breakfast (who’s name we’ve since shortened to Deuce – he doesn’t like it) and rocket who were sitting down for lunch. I joined them and heard an obnoxiously loud voice a couple hundred feet down the trail. “Is that?” I asked. 

But before I could even get the name out, rocket jumped in. “Sure is. They’ve got a whole posse down there. Seems like they’ve grown in size and obnoxiousness since we passed them.” He told me how they’d been rude to him when one of them passed him earlier and how one of the women had just completely ignored Deuce. We made a passive aggressive plan that can only be pulled off by thru hikers and would only offend thru hikers.

We walked out of the woods after the first of them had set off. I was immediately thrown off when I heard “oh my god, Jamie!” It was Danni! I hadn’t seen her since Franklin! I don’t know how or why she fell in with this group but she’s awesome so I stopped to catch up with her as Viking, Deuce and Rocket walked on. 

Suddenly I heard one of the guys turn to his friend and point up the trail towards Viking and laugh. “Look at that fat ass, he has to stop already.” I froze. I was so taken aback that I didn’t know what to do or so. I didn’t even believe he said it. Here was a guy who was actively trying to lose weight, who had lost 50 pounds, who has walked almost 500 miles. And that’s your reaction? 

I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t say anything. I was so shocked that I just left. Walking up the hill thinking about all the things I wish I had said to him. And how much of a better person Viking was than him. 

Now my dislike for this group grew to disdain. I caught up to rocket and we began our dumb hiker ego revenge tour. We caught up to each of the hikers from their group and, with smiles on our faces, wished them a great day as we passed them. They all looked back in despair to see the two injured hikers fly by them. It was a small victory but it didn’t wash any of the taste out of my mouth. I was still disgusted by each and every one of them. 

Neither rocket nor I set up our shelters when we got to camp. We wanted to see where this group would go, and to convene with deuce and Viking – to see where they wanted to go. 

The worst of the group walked on, others (which did include Danni who, even though she has terrible choice in friends, is still cool) decided to stay. When I saw deuce coming down the trail towards us, I met him in the middle and explained the situation. “I hate them,” he said. “But my feet hurt and I’m not walking any further.” And so it was settled. We set up camp.

Once deuce and Viking showed up, the four of us went back to our normal ways and had a lovely evening. We ignored the imbeciles and hung out as usual. When we set up our nightly rummy game, Danni came and joined us. “It’s nice to have some normal socialization” she said at one point. She didn’t explain what she meant but I think we all got it. 

It’s another rainy one. Let’s hope the rain on fly noise does its trick and puts me to sleep this time. 

Key stats:

Miles: 9

Elevation gained: 2100 ft

Mile marker: 499.4

What id feel if most of that group got hit by trains: nothing