On our way into Baxter State Park we stopped by the Birches. This is where the thru-hikers stay the night before they summit their final climb of the trail. We walked into the shelter area to see if anyone was there and sure enough there were three northbounders hiding out from the rain. We brought a 18 pack of beer to share with them so they were more than happy to indulge.
After our quick detour we headed to our lean-to.
You can see that we have certainly made it home for the night. It was nice to be out of the rain as it didn’t let up all night long. The rest of the night was spent playing games, drinking a couple beers and eating a camp style Shepards Pie. We topped off the night with some pistachio pudding. If you remember from my trail blog, every time Derek had pistachio puddle and I had vanilla, jealousy was in the air. I made sure this time we had two packs of pistachio pudding and it was pretty good. Not as amazing as I remember but still a great trail desert.
Here’s to hoping we can get some decent weather tomorrow.
Cheers,
Leak
Northbound By Foot 
Stay dry – and hope the weather breaks soon š BTW now I’m going to have to try pistachio pudding…