Friday, August 28th (day 16)
It was rough leaving the Inn this morning, but we were on the trail by 9 am. Even though we only had 10.6 miles to hike, this was a late start, because it took us 8 1/2 hrs to get to camp. I've decided that the trail can no longer be called a trail. It is more of an obstacle course. We are mainly scrambling on and scaling rocks lately. We use ladders, iron rungs, and ropes to climb. It was pretty intensely difficult today. Sometimes we have to cross a big of deep mud, and if we pick the wrong log to step in, we will sink 10 inches into the mud.

We did get some pretty massive views today, though.

It is all very green here, and I love the moss that covers everything. Some of the moss is kind of a pink color, and is very pretty.

There are also a ton of mushrooms everywhere. All kinds of colors, but I thought this mushroom wall was pretty neat.

Tonight we are camping at the Montclair Glen Lodge. There has been some bear problems here and they have been making improvements to take care of it. I was under the impression that it was not a problem anymore, and maybe they had relocated the bear. Unfortunately that isn't the case, but they did put in a bear box for people to place all food and items that have an odor. It's also a huge bummer that the shelter is full tonight, and we have to be in a tent. It makes me nervous because of my previous bear encounter on the AT. The caretaker, Mariah, was nice enough to let me and Zippy use her two person tent that was already set up so we could be together. She has another tent as well, near us, where she will sleep. Hoping for a good nights sleep and uneventful night.