Magic in the Mountains

June 7, 2021 (20 trail miles, ~10 miles hikes)

Stealth Site – Tom Flyod Wayside

Today was a weird day. I had my 1st bear encounter over night- I was woken up around 1am by what I’m almost certain was a bear stomping around my solo campsite. I clapped and yelled and still heard it stomping around, so I started barking like a dog and it ran off. Needless to day I didn’t sleep great and was ready to get moving early on.

The hike this morning was easy, I only wanted to go 4.5 miles to the last wayside in the Shennies (Elkwallow). I got there around 9am and drank coffee with AKA and Superman. By 10am I was ready to leave, but this wayside is famous for milkshakes and the grill didn’t open until 11am, so I decided to stay and keep hanging.

When the grill finally opened we were told they were out of milkshake stuff, but we decided to get beer and burgers anyway. By noon the milkshakes were restocked and we got some yummy blueberry ones, plus more beer. I legit got drunk at a wayside, and AKA (also drunk) and I decided that we couldn’t hike and started asking tourists for rides. No one took the bait and at 3pm we started road walking with Wood and Wildcat. We got a hitch super quick and got dropped off a couple easy trail miles from the Shelter. Kind of a weird group of strangers here tonight.