Today's hike can best be described as periods of leisure separated by brief periods of easy hiking. For reasons I'm not entirely sure of, we had pushed through the early sections of the wilderness. This morning found us a little more than three miles from Jo-Mary Road. There we would meet up with the Pine family to pick up our food cache to carry us through the remainder of the wilderness. Since they weren't due to arrive until 3:00, we had six hours to cover the three miles.

For most of the morning we hung around the shelter trying to kill time by doing some chores and eating the rest of our food. Finally around 11:30, Lone Wolf and Virginia Creeper arrived and we all decided to hike down to the road and wait. Hopefully they would be early. Plus there may be a chance to Yogi some food. When we arrived, there was a group getting ready to start hiking and eating lunch. Lone Wolf was successful in getting about three pounds of bologna, some lettuce and bread. Brandon and I got a few slices of the meat, but it didn't matter much since we were expecting our cache, and Lone Wolf was running low on supplies to finish the wilderness.

A while later Shaw arrived to do a shuttle for Papa San. He was hiking with his two daughters and one of their boy friends. The girls were debating to continue hiking or get off and meet up at mountain. They had started hiking with Papa San at the wilderness but the girls were not in shape. Although not that tall, the first couple of ranges of mountains in the wilderness were hard. Papa San and the boy friend found themselves carrying not only their packs, but also going back and carrying the girls' packs whenever the terrain got steep. Certainly not a pleasant way to hike. Meanwhile, Lone Wolf and Virginia Creeper were debating riding back to town for dinner and breakfast then shuttle back the next day. However, the $70 shuttle fee effectively ended the debate.

Right at 3:00, the Pines arrive with food for Whispering Pine and us. In addition, they brought a chest full of cold drinks and Whoopie Pies. It was certainly worth the wait. After visiting a while we all hiked a few leisurely miles to Antlers Campsite.

Set in a grove of pines on a peninsula in Lower Jo-Mary Lake, it is one of the most picturesque campsites on the trail. Shortly after we arrived, a light rain began to fall. It quickly passed by leaving behind one of the most spectacular rainbows I've ever seen. It was a double rainbow that stretched in a perfect arch from one side of the lake to the other. It certainly would make a great postcard.

Brandon soon discovered the lake had an abundance of fresh water clams. For the better part of an hour he and Virginia Creeper waded the shoreline in search of clams. After he had collected a bucket full we cooked up a pot of them. We had to cook them a bit longer to kill anything else that was in the water and that made them a bit too tough. He decided he liked collecting them more than eating them. Since we had more than we could eat, he returned the rest of them to the lake.

Today was a relaxed day, because we are so far ahead of schedule. We didn't have to be at Jo-Mary Road until 3:00 in the afternoon, and that's only 3.7 miles away, so we hung out at the shelter until 11:30 when Creeper and Wolf showed up. Then we hiked to Jo-Mary Road. Got there at 12:30 and hung around waiting for Pine's parents to drop off our food. Creeper and Wolf waited also. Eventually Seeker, Pine, Joplin and Shadow showed up. Mama and Papa Pine arrived a little after 3:00 and we all ate Mama Pine's great Whoopie Pies and drank colas. We left first, because we had to go on to the next shelter.

When we got to Antlers Camp, it was so pretty, we decided to stay here. Tonight we had a double rainbow over the lake. I went out and picked clams from the bottom of the lake. I must have picked 100's of clams, but we threw most of them back, because I don't really like them, and Dad could only eat so many. Besides, we had our regular spaghetti dinner, too. After dinner, we sat around the campfire and talked before going to bed.