I had a pleasant stay in Pinedale and feel a bit rejuvenated. My only negative experience was just before leaving town when I stopped at the Heart and Soul Cafe for breakfast.  The server was a sour old woman with a really shitty attitude.  I ordered orange juice and she gave me some fermented foamy crap from the bottom of a jug in a mini fridge.  When I complained that something was wrong with it she acted like I was crazy.  Anyway, the rest of the breakfast sucked too.  My only bad experience in an otherwise awesome town.

I stood at the road leaving town for 15 minutes when no other than P-Ditty, Hatchet, and Silent Bob also showed up to hitch with me again.  These were the same guys hitching into Dubois with me a week ago!  Anyway in just a few minutes a car pulled up and the driver said he can take two of us.  Since I was there first they let me go along with Hatchet.

I was on the trail at 9:00.  Pretty good!  Instead of going back to the CDT via the Seneca Lake trail, the four of us chose to take the Bell Lake trail. This is longer but intersects the CDT 9 miles further down.  This worked out great.

We stopped for lunch on the shores of Chain Lake. I finished early to get a head start on the other three, but they eventually passed me on a steep climb.  I thought I was doing good, but they bounded past me like deer – jumping from rock to rock straight up the side of the steep ravine. Sigh. That was a bit demoralizing.  I then hiked another 5 miles at a more measured pace and was shocked to find the three of them again at their early campsite. I thought they would be long gone. They invited me to join them and I couldn’t resist the excuse to quit early and camp with good company. They pointed to a nice flat spot nearby but warned me of the widow-maker (dead tree) leaning over the spot (which was why none of them took it). I joked that if it killed me then I wouldn’t have to finish this hike, which they found hilarious. As I was setting my tent up right under the tree I wondered just how much was I joking? I’m at the point where I just don’t worry about stuff like this much. If it happens, then so be it.

Apparently my camp prep is not very efficient.  The other guys appear to just sleep in their dirty clothes.  And they use those accordion pads which don’t need to be blown up.  And they don’t have stoves, so no messing with dinner prep.  They were going to sleep at 7:00 and I didn’t even have my dinner done cooking. I hadn’t planned on camping here until I ran into them and I was out of water.  This meant I had to go back 1/2 mile to a small lake to get water and then return which consumed even more time. I tried to be quiet as the rest of them were sound asleep already.