Up top is Sketch, sketching a sketch. (You are familiar with the "trail name" tradition on the AT, right? If not, that's ok. Here it is: when you thru-hike the Trail you either assume or are given a name that for some reason or another suits you-- a personality trait, a funny quirk, an embarrasing event at a shelter, etc. This name stays with you for life so far as the Trail is concerned, so don't blow it and get stuck with a lame one.) Below that is one of the sketches sketched by Sketch. It's a beautiful sketch, isn't it? Thus the name. Probably the only hiker to ever bring watercolors on a thru-hike, Sketch faithfully captured the scene at countless stops on the Trail as a main element of his journal and as an occasional treat in the shelter logbooks.

The larger context of these three photos was our overnight stay at the Kincorra hostel in TN. Shortly after these shots we all ate way too much at the local Chinese buffet, and we celebrated that by promptly buying gallons of ice cream at the grocery store next door. That's yours burly on the left, showing just enough leg.