Day 44: June 22, 2009
Travel:
From: US 220 Daleville, VA
To: Middle Creek Picnic Area, VA (Va. 614, Jennings Creek)
Beginning: 9:30am
Ending: 8:30pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 28.1
b) other – .3 to middle creek picnic area
c) AT Mile Marker – 746.7 cumulative
Weather:
AM & PM: Sunny but not too hot under the trees. Perfect hiking weather. Beautiful.
People: Met Chef and the various people he was hiking with. Ran into SnP on the phone (Two pack had already reached the shelter up ahead)
Animals: Saw a bear on the trail but he ran off before I could get a picture.
Money: $0, $783 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Got a wake up call from Ava as she came back from working the graveyard shift as a nurse. She had brought us biscuits from Hardees and then offered us cereal, that we of course accepted. I wrote some last minute emails and then we were off to the trailhead. We said goodbye at the gas station where Ava dropped us off and then we’re back on the trail. First two miles was spent going over some gentle hills through farmland to Troutville. Then the trail turned up towards Fullhardt Knob, but not before we ran into a couple that had literally dropped their stuff in the middle of the trail and set up their tent in the footpath. Their stuff was scattered around them and they were still passed out as we walked past at like 10 in the morning. When we got to the top of Fullhardt Knob the sign for the shelter said .1 to it and we thought there might be a nice view so we wandered up to it. No view but the shelter was nice and had a magazine from 1985 and it was hilarious to read about the future tech of CDs and how they were read by these futuristic lasers and the Omnibot 2000 that had a cassette tape reader for his voice, Haha! Also, a nice old couple told us about the magic of Jennings Creek and how there was a nice place to swim and the shelter we were going to had no water so we decided to try and make the creek before tonight.
PM: Continued on and made a stop for lunch at the next shelter, Wilson Creek Shelter, which wasn’t next to the creek sadly. There we met a whole bunch of thru hikers including Chef who had started the trail in March. He pulled out a small set of speakers and asked if anyone had a functioning iPod and I jumped up to volunteer. Lunch was had with the soaring vocals of Robert Plant and the legendary Jimmy Page to keep us company. Even got a request to play “Going to California” which made one girl’s day. Sadly, we had a long way to go and couldn’t hang around all afternoon. The next part of the trail would take us back and forth over the Blue Ridge Parkway. On the way to Bobblets Shelter we passed SP on the phone and then about .86 after the shelter when we ended up back on the BRP only to find the lunch crowd sitting around on the grass. We were obviously shocked to find them there because we had left them in our dust hours ago. Apparently they got a ride up the BRP from some old couple that gave them some magic. They tossed us an apple so I wasn’t too offended they skipped a chunk of trail. Fresh fruit is the best thing in the world when you’ve been on the trail a long time. We said bye and they headed back towards Bobblets and we pushed on. On the way down to Jennings creek Spoon stopped abruptly in the middle of the trail and pointed out the big black thing looking right at us. I fumbled for my camera, but he was young and wanted nothing to do with us so he fled into the woods. We agreed seeing a bear this close to our camping spot would necessitate hanging our food bags well tonight. Unfortunately, it was after 8 when we got down to VA 614 so there was no time to swim. We found a nice covered picnic pavilion a perfect substitute for an AT shelter and dropped our stuff. Pumped water and cooked dinner. Ate in the dark and finally got to bed around 10pm. Tomorrow is going to be a tough day so this is all he wrote.
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Sounds like those people in the middle of the trail might have had a bad night. Do you think they were trying to find a shelter and gave up?