Day 16 - Devil's Backbone- Prof

We made it through the storm last night. I guess the next shelter past where we stayed last night had hail, more than the single piece that we got. I awoke this morning to a beautiful sunrise. I was one of the first awake to the peaceful morning, it started off a beautiful day. That changed. 

We started off toward the next shelter on a mountain known as The Priest. The cool thing about the Priest is that in the log book at the shelter hikers confess their Trail sins. It's a great laugh and had us all in a good mood as we began the brutal descent. The morning had been cloudy and we were hiking through another cloud forest. At one point the sun came out and when I looked out at the view I saw clouds beneath us. I'm really kicking myself for not taking a picture. Countinuing on the trail we ran into the cloud again and we kept descending. Then it seemed that we all of a sudden broke to below the clouds and it started pouring down rain. I ran down the rest of the trail. I think it was a 4 mile descent. When I got to the bottom Tyler (the hiker we met that is preparing for the PCT) was waiting with a beer. Thank you Tyler and Paul you guys were amazing Trail angels! Good luck on the PCT Tyler, hopefully this will get your trail karma going strong!

Our group loaded up into his vehicle and they drove us to the Devil's Backbone brewery.  It was great to have a beer. I started with a black IPA and a bowl of chili. Then we moved inside and to the main restaurant. I had a french dip sandwich with a fried egg on top and mashed potatoes smothered in cheese and bacon. I washed this down with a coffee stout. It was heaven, pricey for sure, but heaven none the less. I spent the afternoon playing cornhole and taking a nap in my hammock. 

They allow hikers to stay here for free and even gave us wood for a fire. We tried a fire but right as we got it going it started raining again and drowned out the flames. Rain is getting annoying at this point. 

In the morning they have a hiker breakfast that we are going to destroy. I'm so excited for it. I'm not sure how much we are going to to hike tomorrow, it seems we done decide what our plan is until lunchtime. We should be resupplying in two days. I think there is a spot to shower as well (which I'll probably need). 

 
(The bartender jumped back into my photo) 

-Prof 

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