(Daily Mi: 12.5) Bizarre day. Hiked 2.5 miles to the next roadhead to meet a friend of Choo Choo's named Bill who lives locally. He took Piper, Potato Man, Choo Choo and myself down the road for a diner breakfast and into town to do some wash.

Bill seemed kind of unhappy when he picked us up, and it later occurred to me that when Choo Choo said she would be with three friends, Bill was picturing himself squiring around a group of leggy, in-shape ladies and ended up instead with a bunch of sweaty, bearded dudes. Kind of funny, but seriously uncomfortable.

Got back on the Trail around 3 pm intending to head another 3.5 miles on to the next shelter. I made it into the shelter a little after 4 pm followed by the P Man at 4:30. At five o'clock the temperature suddenly dropped a good 5-10 degrees and it started to rain. At 5:20 Piper and Choo Choo had still not come in, and we decided they had missed the side-trail to the shelter. Knowing that the next two possible stops (a picnic pavilion at 3 miles and shelter at 6) were both dry, we decided to grab a few quarts and chase them. I was moving really fast and lost the Potato Man pretty quickly.

It was really cold and wet. It was less than two hours to dark, and I was hiking like a machine. Found the pavilion empty (and rainswept) and kept going. I fell on wet rocks 3 or 4 times. Got back up and kept going. I hit the shelter at 6:50 cold and very wet. Choo Choo and Piper had come in right ahead of me, and while they were glad to see me, water turns out not have been an issue as a downspout on the shelter is shedding about 1 qt/minute. Everything outside of my pack, including my rolling tobacco, is totally f*cked.