Happy Birthday, Cocoa

Some of you may be wondering how my birthday was. My request was that we spend it in the woods, which we did. M carried decorations and ingredients for a birthday cake into the Shenandoah National Park. On Monday, we stopped at the Pinefield Hut after an easy 13 mile day. Stay tuned for the photos. The idea was that we would hike as usual, and then have the birthday party with whoever happened to stop at the same shelter as us. We stopped early in the day and M got to work decorating, complete with balloons, a birthday sign and streamers. The guests began to arrive, and included several section hikers, Bad Influence Groundhog and his dog Paige, and Jason, as well as Aquaman and Farenheit - a special surprise since they had started from Springer Mountain the same day as us and we hadn't seen them in a while.

Then the assembly of the birthday cake began. This was an elaborate affair, which took several hours and included building a fire, and baking three layers of chocolate cake, in our little titanium frying pan. Between each layer, M spread cherry jelly and cocount, and iced the whole thing with cherry icing. It really looked like a cake when we was done. Everyone sang happy birthday and posed for a picture. Some people even gave me presents - chocolate and blow pops! It was truly an event to remember.