april 8 - hiking with new crew

April 8 we finally got back to the trail. We hiked at a relaxed pace, which helped keep the strain off my knee, which started hurting again. It was a 10 mile day but passed pretty quickly. We stopped a few times, usually for a while. These guys stop very often and just chill. Theres very little pressure to push long days with high mileage. At first the pace was kind of annoying, id keep stopping to wait for the group. Bbut after a while i decided ill just go ahead and well regroup at the end of the day. We stopped for lunch at a pond and stayed there for almost an hour. I really wasnt used to that long of a break. But i can get used to the relaxedness of it all. I got ahead of them after lunch and ended up hiking with a guy named big yankee. Hes hiking with a bigger group of guys, who kind of view themselves and barbarians. And view the trail as something they are doing as an adventure in which they go from town to town, drinking and pillaging. They dont actually pillage, but its a fun thought. He told me that him and his group may be aquabblazinng part of virginia. Aquablazing is doing the trail by river. Theres a river in virginia that runs parallel to the trail. So they may rent canoes, and paddle 50 or 60 miles north. And hang out in canoes for 5 days and pull over for meals and camping. He said i can join if were in the same place at that time. It sounds like alot of fun, ive been trying to talk dumptruck into getting the group to do it. Our total mileage was only about 10 miles and we camped out near a shelter. There was a campfire going on by the shelter so i hung out there for a while. Back at the tents, clever girl read a jesus pamphlet she found on the fire tower we stopped at earlier in the day. She put her owns spin on it, it was very funny. April 8 is my fathers birthday. Happy birthhday to him.