I got out of camp around 10:30 and made it to Springer an hour later. August hiked with me this day. I didn’t really appreciate this. I somehow allowed him to convince me to hike a short 4 mile day from Springer to Stover Creek shelter. This ended up being okay in the end because I met Pineapple and the day after would end up meeting the rest my group. We hiked with Rebecca and her dog who’s name I can’t remember but I loved having him around. The terrain wasn’t bad. I picked up a rock to carry with me to Katahdin. There was about 10 of us at the shelter. Iggy (Pineapple) was out for just a few days on his break from school. He’s super likeable and it was comforting having him there, he was the person closest to my age. That night someone started a fire and the stars looked absolutely beautiful.

This was an important day. It was a pretty section and I really enjoyed the hiking. The terrain was still easy at this point. I hiked again with Rebecca and August. It was another short day since we were following August’s lead which was pretty annoying to me. We hiked 5 miles to Hawk Mountain shelter. While I was talking with some other hikers August interrupted and told me he’d find me a flat tent site. I’m not sure why he thought I needed his help but I just said okay and continued my conversation. Turns out he set up my tent and it was literally inches from his. At this point he’s really getting on my nerves but I’m not sure how to handle it. At some point Rebecca offered me an edible, I gladly accepted. Thank goodness because not long after that, it hit me that August was a huge creep and I needed to dodge that situation ASAP. I started to feel really uncomfortable and avoided him for the rest of the night.

Otherwise, this night was a lot of fun. I hung out with Pineapple and Daniel who became quite the dynamic duo. We laughed a lot and hung out by the fire. Not long after we all went to bed it started to downpour and the tent sites were flooding. We all moved into the shelter and of course the only spot left was next to August. It made for an even more uncomfortable night of sleeping but I felt good knowing I’d make sure to get away from him tomorrow.

This was the best day so far for me. I woke up pretty early but I was moving really slowly, hoping August would go ahead without me. 3 hours later I was still at camp and he was still waiting but I could tell he was getting frustrated. I couldn’t drag it out any longer so I finally left around 10:30. He followed. We walked the blue blaze back to the trail and I let him get ahead a bit and then said I had to re-tie my shoes so he could go ahead. Again he tried to wait but I told him again to just go on. He did and I waited a bit so he’d get a head start. I felt so relieved. I hiked on and ran into Pineapple and Daniel taking a break, they’d been waiting for me to catch up. We hiked together. Daniel went a bit ahead of us, we eventually caught up to him when he was sitting with someone new taking a break. It was another Brian from Texas. He offered to hike with Daniel since he was having a tough time and told us we could go ahead.

We had a nice time hiking together and I felt so much better. We ran into a group we recognized from Hawk Mountain shelter and had lunch with them. This ended up being the group I’d hike with for awhile. I told the only other girl in the group, Forward, about my weird situation and she immediately said I’d camp with them that night. I hiked with Forward, Tennessee, Veg, Mike, and Pineapple. We finally had an intimidating climb this day and I realized how difficult the uphills are while carrying a 30 lb pack.

We stayed at Gooch Gap and it was a great time. There were so many people there, at least 25-30 of us. August avoided me, he took the hint. We all hung out in the shelter and I spent some time with Veg and Pineapple and a guy called Beast who was hiking super fast. I cooked dinner by myself at my tent and enjoyed some alone time. Forward and I had fun camping next to each other. Now I was starting to feel really comfortable.