Friday, August 21st (day 9)
We ended up camping with two different school groups last night who stayed up all night being loud. Not a great nights sleep, but thankfully the rain quieted them down around 3:30 AM. Our hike started in the rain, and with the forecast, we planned on rain all day. However, it was done by about 11am. It was actually nice because it brought the temperature down a bit. I put a cover over my pack, but rather than put my raincoat on, I embraced the free shower. Killington was our big climb today, and our biggest yet, on the Long Trail. We pushed hard, and was at the top earlier than expected. On the way up, we saw "Pringles" for the 3rd day in a row. He, of course, offered us some pringles, and was on his way down. The cooper shelter at the top was very run down. The bunks were falling apart, and even the tent platforms were unusable. It was a shame to see. It is such a beautiful setting
for a shelter.

We knew that there was possibly going to be 3 school groups there tonight, one of them being the high energy Harvard students who we passed going up the mountain. We decided to hike further and start down the mountain to the next shelter. Before heading down, an old AT thru hiker friend from my 2012 hike showed up. "Float" is headed southbound on a second AT thru hike. It was great to see him again! Happy trails, Float!

We soon arrived at the Pico camp shelter.

I was really excited to go there because of the warnings about porcupines. I have never seen one. Alas, I did not see one still. Sigh. We did have a very great night though, and our old friend, Squirrel, showed up and shared the cabin with us. We camped with him our 1st and 2nd nights on the trail. We caught back up with him after he took a couple days off to rest.

After a 13.2 mile day, passing our 100 mile mark, and a cabin with only the three of us, we all slept very well.