Chapter 12 Summary

Bryson decides they will camp at shelters from then on. A few days after the terrifying night by the stream and after mostly being alone on the trail, they are joined in a shelter by some Boy Scouts and a group of section hikers. A high school teacher named John Connolly joins them on a hike to Big Meadows campground, where some tourists exclaim over them and the fact that they have been trekking through the woods for weeks. A small crowd gathers as Katz proudly demonstrates some of his gear. Back on the trail, they pass a meadow where, a month later, two women would be found murdered in their tents.

Three days later another driving rain descends on them. They arrive at a shelter in the evening, soaked and miserable, and soon after a crowd of obnoxious hikers in what looks...