Punch bowl, June 9th

I slept well. It kinda smells in this shelter. The homeless guy screamed at his dog a few times in the night. I think he left cans in the fire and they exploded. Something in the fire exploded at some point in the night. I feel bad for River Otter because her bunk was up against the homeless guys bunk.

We had a really relaxed morning. We all got frozen breakfast items from the Dollar General across the street to heat up in the microwave! That was really exciting. We also went to Scottos for lunch. I got fried chicken and a giant sandwich to go. That sandwich was delicious on the trail.

We got photos with the giant dinosaur in town that some local artist made.

We were surprised to get a hitch back easily and for so many of us. Dirty Duck showed up into town early this morning from the trail and another guy came along to head back to the trail too. Catfish and Still Hank were just arriving as we were about to leave. It was nice seeing them, it's been awhile.

The trail was brutal today. Almost all uphill and it was just so hot out. I had to take many breaks to cool off.I only went 10 miles but we started at 1:30 in the high heat of the day. I saw a box turtle on the trail! I also saw a crawfish in the creek at the shelter. It was pretty big. A bunch of little kids are here and they were highly entertained by it. The bugs were brutal, I got bit up a lot. It was driving me crazy!

There's a nasty pond nearby, Dirty Duck says he'll go in because he loves swimming.

Tonight at Punchbowl shelter I'm at mile 795.4 with 1394.4 left to go.