Well, friends, I promised to report back from the trail, and what a report it is!
We hiked the entire Canebrake Trail, met up with the Foothills Trail, and stopped there for lunch. The rain that was supposed to start as a drizzle at 3 pm showed up at 1 pm instead and turned into a pretty heavy rain. We got soaked. All three of us.
Let me tell you about Ghost. He’s spoiled. We freeze dry his Farmer’s Dog food, and he has opinions about how it’s served. We’d left his bowl back with the camping gear, and he wanted NOTHING to do with eating out of the freeze-dried bag. So I fed him with Marty’s camp spoon. One spoonful at a time. Ghost was so hungry that he ate his supper AND his breakfast for the next day. Marty got a cute video of it, which I’ll share below.
Ghost talks to us in his own way. When he wants water, he sits in front of Marty. When he wants food or treats, he comes up to me, slows down, and just stares. He has us well trained. <laughter> He’s a good boy.
After 11.2 miles, we made a judgment call. Marty and I could dry off, but Ghost is a husky, and even after we rubbed him down with our camp towels, he would have taken hours to dry. A wet husky in a tent on a rainy night didn’t sound like much fun for anyone. So we skipped the campsite and found a hotel instead. And guess what? We got a free upgrade to a suite! Our gear is hanging all over the room this morning to dry. (Flexibility is a backpacker’s best friend, remember?) We ate our freeze-dried meals for dinner and relaxed.
Originally we planned to head straight home from camp after eating breakfast. This morning we heated up water in the microwave to eat breakfast. Surprisingly, it is better than the hotel food!
It was a good hike. Wet, muddy, and good.
Never stop exploring and never give up hope. Life is good.
