Springer Mountain to Hawk Mountain Shelter

I was up at 5:30 and the hostel had breadkfsast on at 0730. We were shuttled to the Springer Mt parking lot and finally got started at 10am. The parking lot is situated so that we have to climb .9 miles up Springer then follow our track back to the parking lot and on to the rest of the trail. Coming from the welcome center has a hiker coming up an approach trail, adding several steep miles to a hike that don't actually count toward the total AT milage. We skipped that part. Anyway, by 11am we were back at the parking lot where Karen left us and went on her way. We proceeded on and it was a warm, beautiful, sunshiny day. I heard lots of birds, saw a black butterfly with indigo on the back edge of its wings, yellow swallowtail butterflies, yellow and violet woods violets and a few white 8 petaled flowers that looked similar to daisys. I took a picture of one. This part of the trail is near an Army Ranger training base so there have been a few overhead blyby's of helicopters and rangers playing war games. Sherpa got to Hawk Mountain shelter first and come back along the trail to offer encouragement. I'm skipping the shelter and staying in my tent. It was late by the time Katahdin Kid got in. Larry (Shaft) had to drop out at the 3 Forks area due to back problems. He hitched a ride out. We're sad to see him go. At the shelter, a NYC guy, Red Eyes, has had stove failure so I'm lending him my stove to make his supper. There are 8 other hikers here besides us. Half of them are staying in the shelter, the rest are tenting. The Shelter Kids are gathering firewood for a campfire. I've made my food but I'm still not hungry. I guess I'll just choke it donw. I have to figure out how to hang my bear canister from the bear cables. I thought to put the cannister in my sleeping bag compression bag but it doesn't fit. Maybey the compression straps for my sleeping pad?