Thorofare Trip Day 5

Started out early with lots of scritching and scratching in the walls. Most of it was mice but there was one very loud fella, for about 45 minutes around 2am, that was either the Godfather of all mice or a pack rat. Ew.

We finally got ready to go, cleaned up the cabin (even double-mopped, and packed out some improperly stored food) and started on our trek. the rain from last night and a low-lying mist combined for a wet start. 

I was well soaked by the end of the first mile. But we made excellent time. Only 1 1/2 hours to our lunch spot from Saturday. Light packs and fewer stops for flower pics had us hitting our designated camp spot at 1:45.

 This is the view from the sunny side, the other side had some brooding rain clouds that convinced us it would be better to hike the last 4 miles that night and be able to spend time in a cabin rather than huddling in our tents.
I won't lie. My feet HURT. And the blister on my pinky toe felt like it was on fire. But Heidi hiked in the back with me and conversation made the hike seem faster. We paused one more time (it ended up being less than 10 minutes from our cabin, but we needed it) and saw our first non-Parkies of the trip. Three folks, two men and a woman, had hiked all of their gear in from 9-mile to go fishing. When the woman found out we had boated in and shaved off almost double-digit miles, her look didn't bode well for her male companions.
We made it to Cabin Creek Cabin around 4:20 (nearly 8 hours of hiking with at least 40 lbs. I am woman, hear me roar. If you can hear it over the sound of my feet screaming...) We got the tents almost completely set up (there was another veg crew that was slated to be in the cabin) but stopped to eat Junior Mints, watch the clouds, and do some hip/lower back releases.
Then Eric, Monica, and Irene came down and we all stood talking for awhile until dinner.
After everyone was fed, we sat staggered on the front steps of the cabin chatting some more and just generally being lazy. Monica went down to the creek to wash her dishes, came back, and very calmly announced, "There's a bear down there."
Jane grabbed her camera and went running. Monica yelled, "Maybe you should take some bear spray!" and the rest of us took off as well.
I don't know if it was 7 people running toward the bear or if it was chasing a snowshoe hare, but all I saw was the glimpse of a brown snout and a black butt galumphing out into the willows.
I was a little worried about the bear but actually fell asleep pretty darn quickly anyway.

A different snowshoe

Bats

Totally inadequate representation of our sunset

Pretty sure this was accidental, but included it anyway