Mountains Under Foot

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 37: June 15, 2009
Travel:
From: Woods Hole Hostel, VA
To: Zero day
Weather:
Am/Pm: Sky flip-flopped from being dark and rainy to bright and sunny multiple times.
People: Neville, Michael, One-step. Then some guys showed up around dinnertime, Checkpoint and Coldfeet.
Animals: Just the three dogs and two cats.
Money: $0, $721
Notes of the day:
AM: Woke up at 7:30 to a nice breakfast prepared by Neville and Michael. It included blueberry pancakes with a homemade blueberry syrup, sausage and farm-raised eggs. Delicious. After we ate everyone cleaned their own dish and Spoon helped wash other dishes and I put them away. I revealed to them that it was my birthday and I received lots of “happy birthdays” which made me smile. Neville was kind enough to let me use their Internet for free (normally $5 an hour) today as a present. So I got to work sending journals and about 180 pictures. Uploading the pictures ended up taking the whole day…

PM: In the meantime we worked! We moved a ton of wood from these pallets from the bottom of the yard to the top near the under construction barn. We switched gears and started filling up wheelbarrows full of dirt to fill in an area beside the house where they wanted to grow some grass. The crew was getting tired and hungry so we took a break for lunch. One-step offered up his Ramen and Neville turned it into the best tasting Ramen ever with the help of some of her leftover vegetable soup. There was also a fresh loaf of bread and Michael made a fantastic dipping sauce of olive oil, basil, salt & pepper, and Parmesan cheese. And there was lemonade in mason jars with sprigs of mint! Perfect meal to enjoy on the porch. After most of us had finished, to my surprise, Neville brought out a tray of cookie topped ice cream and a candle and everyone sang Happy Birthday, it felt like I was back home. Truly an awesome gesture that will make this one of the most memorable birthday’s ever. Afterward Neville asked if I wanted to use the phone to call my mom, so I did. Also used the opportunity to call Catherine which I admittedly spent more time than I should have on someone’s phone but it was worth it. She’ll be going into the field for two weeks and I probably won’t get to talk to her until Harper’s Ferry. By the time I got off the phone pictures were finally done but it was also 5:30pm and Spoon didn’t want to hike into town in the dark (about 10 miles to town) so we decided to stay another night. We finished clearing the wood and Michael mowed the lawn and we put the seed down on the side of the house. So if you ever come up here and see the grass, that was our lasting contribution. I volunteered to help Neville in the kitchen with dinner. I sliced up potatoes, diced tomatoes, sliced strawberries, and then seasoned up a couple of pounds of beef and cooked some burgers up. It felt good to be in the kitchen again. The burgers were had on fresh baked buns with a salad and the potatoes as a side. Ice cream was for dessert. Not a bad way to spent the day. Got to bed right as the rain started to come down again. Thanks to Woods Hole Hostel for making it a great day!
Fun quote of the day: “When life gives you mud, add more mud.” – in response to filling in a wet spot beside the house with dirt after it had just rained.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 36: June 14, 2009
Travel:
From: Helveys Mill Shelter, VA
To: Woods Hole Hostel, VA
Beginning: 8:30am
Ending: 10:30pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 30.2
b) other – .3 to trail from Helveys, about 2 miles up then down a forest service road on the wrong way to Woods  Hole.
c) AT Mile Marker – 615.8 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Perfect day for hiking
PM: Got a little hot and humid late in the afternoon.
People: Met Neville and (Michael tomorrow) who were great hosts at Woods Hole. Met One Step.
Animals: The usual deer and other forest creatures. The deer really seem to not mind us as they will continue to munch on things with us standing right in front of them. Someone told us it was to distract us from the newborn baby hidden a few yards away.
Money: $0, $721 cumulative
Notes of the day:
AM: Those darn little biting insects were all over us again last night making it very difficult to sleep. I awoke in the morning to see Spoon covered by his hammock apparently used as a bug shield. Slow moving to get out of camp but fast moving on the trail. We made it to Jenny Knob Shelter for lunch before noon.

PM: We had been seeing these “flyer’s” of sorts for Woods Hole Hostel ever since Partnership shelter so we started toying with the idea of trying to make it there tonight. But not until we finished our crossword puzzle! Yes, someone had left a book of crossword puzzles at the shelter and we started working on one as we ate lunch. Highlights of the afternoon were going up the 6th Brushy Mountain in a few days and a suspension bridge over Kimberling Creek. We skipped Dismal (which means “ancient” in Indian(?)) and Creek Falls due to the time it would have taken and it was already late. We got to what we thought was the turn off to Wapiti Shelter where we were going to stay but then made the call to push the extra 5.8 to the Hostel. So we each pounded a candy bar and continued down the trail. Then about 30 minutes later we pass a sign to turn off to Wapiti and at this point it is just after 6:30pm but we pushed on. It was about 4 miles up to the top of this ridge and then it came back down to a road. It was at this point around 9pm that it was getting too dark to read the signs posted for the hostel but we were both under the assumption that we just had to bear right. Well two miles back up the mountain where the road ended proved that we were wrong. Now the hostel is only .5 off the trail but that is what hope will do to you, you think it’s right around the corner and you don’t want to turn back only to find out you didn’t go far enough. When we got back to the AT I looked and the sign clearly states a right then a left. So we finally got to the hostel about 10:30ish and were greeted by 3 friendly dogs and Neville. We talked to her for a few minutes and she said we looked so worn out that she was going to get us something. That something was two plates of leftovers each with a large chicken breast, broccoli, and a hunk of homemade bread. After scarfing that down Spoon headed to bed and I took a cold shower then went to bed. A soft, comfy mattress, so I was in heaven…

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 35: June 13, 2009
Travel:
From: Chestnut Knob Shelter, VA
To: Helveys Mill Shelter, VA
Beginning: 8:15am
Ending: 8:00pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 24.3
b) other – .3 to Helveys
c) AT Mile Marker – 585.3 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Sunny with white puffy clouds all day
PM: See ‘Am’
People: Ran in to some section hikers who supplied us with magic. Another guy who gave us some trail magic; that was about it…
Animals: Nothing too exciting.
Money: $0, $721 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Decent start today, felt a little sluggish throughout. Morning was ridge walking for quite some time. We met Piecemeal (section hiker) who was with Sunshine (?) and I don’t think the other guy introduced himself. Anyway, Sunshine asked if we were thru-hiking and we said “Yes” and she replied, “Then I have some magic for you!” She pulled out some blueberry and walnut pancakes with bacon sandwiched in between them and handed us each two cheese sticks. We ate all but a cheese stick each, which we put in the pot for dinner. We thanked them and moved on.

PM: More ridge walking until we hit a road that we hiked down for about a mile then the trail headed back into the woods. Not more than 100 feet from the road was a cooler and a trashcan… We had to check it out, and inside was a whole ton of melting ice and three packages of Nature Valley granola bars, so we grabbed the bars and sat down at the picnic table for round two of trail magic. We were in the middle of our bars when we hear a truck pull up and a guy brought up a whole ton of fresh ice and Gatorade to refill the now empty cooler. He says, “Sorry fellas, I’m a little late today so the drinks won’t be cold”. We replied with, “I think you’re right on time!” We just put some ice in the drink bottles and they were nice and cold. We each drank two, mmm, grape. Long boring ridge for 6 1/2 miles until we hit another road with a trash bag hanging off a post and 3 one gallon water jugs sitting there, so I filled up my Camelbak. Trail magic take three! One ridiculously long road walk later we were back in the woods headed to tonight’s shelter. I had spent the last 10 miles drying out and then we get to this steep hill right at the end of the day and I’m back to being drenched in sweat. Just my luck…

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 34: June 12, 2009
Travel:
From: The Relax Inn, VA
To: Chestnut Knob Shelter, VA
Beginning: 10:45am
Ending: 8:30pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 23
b) other
c) AT Mile Marker – 561.3 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Overcast with dark clouds still scattered in the sky. Looked threatening but did not rain.
PM: Sun came out often from behind the clouds and the wind was gusty like it was going to rain, but didn’t.
People: Lots of people talked to us while we were sitting on the bench in front of the gas station. I guess we looked kinda funny. Not a lot of people on the trail, but we unexpectedly ran into Sal at the shelter. He had gotten rained on yesterday and was trying to dry out.
Animals: Probably 6-7 deer on the trail. A fairly large snake. Lots of cows.
Money: $2 for vitamin water at gas station before we headed out, $721 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Late start on the day because the beds felt so nice and the curtains blocked whatever light the sun was producing so well. Put on the weather channel and packed our stuff up. Thankfully because of the newspaper we stuffed in our boots, the insides were quite dry, so we were excited! The radar on weather channel showed the bands of rain had passed and the sky might be friendly for a day or two. Made a quick stop at the gas station on the way out for cold drinks and Spoon got a Zebra cake and doughnuts. The rest of the morning hiking was in and out of the woods and cow pastures or hay fields. The non-traditional moos made it sound like we were entering Jurassic Park.

PM: Lots of signs telling us we were on private property and to stay on the trail welcomed us in the early afternoon. We shared some of the trail with the cows in their fields which was nice until you slip on a cow pie or have to climb over the crazy apparatus that lets hikers over but keeps cows in. Then there was lots of hiking until we got to a big covered picnic area beside Va. 52 where we had lunch around 3:30ish. Kinda bland until we got on top of Chestnut Ridge, except for Spoon snapping his left pole in half and face-planting on the trail. The ridge was a beautiful grassy area with fantastic views. At the top if it all was the shelter; a surprising 4 walled stone building with a door and windows. Inside there were slats and bunks for people to sleep on and a picnic table right in the middle. Looks like a great place to stay tonight. I got a top bunk right above the bionic man – Sal!