Mountains Under Foot

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 46: June 24, 2009
Travel:
From: Marble Spring, VA
To: Punchbowl Shelter, VA
Beginning: 8:30am
Ending: 6:30pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 18.2
b) other – .2 down to shelter
c) AT Mile Marker – 785.8 cumulative
Weather:
AM & PM: Sunny with blue skies and white puffy clouds. Wooo!
People: Same crowd from last night plus Slackass, Croc (impostor), Sarah, Shannon, and Kelly.
Animals: The usual.
Money: $7 for lunch, $2 for resupply, $7 for shuttle back to trail. $799 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Not the best night sleep under Spoon’s hammock. He kept sagging lower and lower so I shuffled to the side. Once we woke up and got some food going we finished off the last of the leftover cereal. Spoon was concerned we’d go hungry without it supporting our breakfasts. So he suggested a quick resupply in Big Island or Glasgow and have lunch there as well. Really quick 5 miles to Matt’s Creek then another 2 miles to the James River foot bridge. We crossed over the James shortly after 11am and the tried to hitch into town for almost an hour before asking the guys fishing under the bridge if they were heading into town anytime soon. Thankfully they were and we finally got to town after noon.

PM: The local gas station on the edge of town was outfitted with made to order foods and a deli. I had a ham & cheese sub because I can’t remember the last time I had cold cuts for lunch, it was certainly before the hike. Spoon had some monster bacon cheeseburger per usual. This is where we met the three girls who are hiking together. Over at the Dollar General we picked up two things, a bag of sugary cereal and mini Oreo bites. Then we spent 30-40 minutes trying to find a ride without luck before we had to call a shuttle service. The three girls walked across the street and within 5 minutes had roped a guy into taking them back to the trail. To be honest I’m pretty sure he was headed the opposite direction before he stopped. Anyway we took our silent ride with Turtleback back to the trail and we each handed Leon the driver our $7. The whole trip down to town seemed so pointless at this moment but it made Spoon happy so whatever. Just 10 miles and 3 really nasty uphills to the next shelter and we were done with the day. We got to where we had planned but I felt like we could have done much more today. I’d really like to make Harpers Ferry on schedule so we might have to blaze through the Shenandoah’s. The frogs from the pond were croaking the whole night making quite a loud symphony of noise. It kinda reminded me of when I went down to Fort Bragg with Cat for work. Around 1:30am I woke up and felt my foot in searing pain like it had been poked with an ember. Some spider or other insect bit or stung the bottom of my toe. It left this bubble of skin that I poked with the tweezers until clear fluid came out. That made it feel somewhat better, but that spot and actually other spots on my foot remained puffy and painful. Good times…