Mountains Under Foot

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 43: June 21, 2009
Travel:
From: US 220 Daleville, VA
To: ‘Zero’ day
Weather:
AM & PM: Sunny and hot. Blue skies and fluffy clouds.
People: Our caretakers, the Leonards. Mama Ava’s sister and her husband.
Animals: Dogs and cats abound.
Money: $22 for resupply, $783 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Woke up generally at the same time as Spoon and immediately turned on the TV in Charlene’s room. We laid there for awhile surfing the channels but mainly stuck with the Discovery channel. Ava called us down to breakfast which was eggs with biscuits & gravy. Yum. Afterwards we went back upstairs to get back into bed for more relaxing and figuring out what we needed for our next resupply. Then it was time to hit the store.

PM: Ava, Zeke (her son), Spoon, and I jumped in the car and drove to the grocery store where we split up. Us to the grocery and them to the Verizon store. We loaded up on 6 days of food, the most we’ve carried so far, because our next stop is in Waynesboro. Then headed back to the house to drop off groceries and then back into the car to go down the street to Ava’s sister’s house where we could use their Internet. Down in the basement we stayed for hours writing up blog posts and uploading pictures and video. Ava’s sister was amazing, directing us to the garage fridge with cold drinks and even going so far as to bring us a plate of nachos and salsa. Also in the garage was a fully restored 1960 Ford Starliner. This car was restored with almost all original parts and done all in that very garage. It was an absolute beauty of a car and we got the full show by the owner himself. Apparently, the Starliner was only made in 60′ and 61′ and this was honestly the first I had ever heard of such a car. But with its 400+ horsepower engine I’d be hearing it a lot on the road! He also had an 85′? Honda Goldwing and a much newer Valkyrie (motorcycles). Quite the impressive collection. We didn’t leave until almost 6pm and we were getting hungry. Back at the Leonard’s a pot roast was already in the works and the meat was so tender it just melted in your mouth. Along with potatoes, carrots, and rolls it was the perfect meal. Then back upstairs to digest and veg out in front of the TV until we got tired and fell asleep.

Hi Everyone!

Spoon and I are planning to make it to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, the ‘mental’ 1/2 way point, by July 4th! We hope to get a train ride into DC for some festivities and this is a great opportunity to come see us on the trail. If anyone wants to come and see us, drop me an email or a comment and we’ll set it up.

Thanks again for all of the love and support from the MUF community!

- Hazard & Spoon

Spoon writes:
Hello Everyone,
Sorry I have been absent lately from the more recent posts. It seems as if I tend to get lazy on updates when I get near town. When we get a chance to sit, it seems that is all I want to do and nothing and no more! But now I am at a well working computer and feel like typing.

As we went into Damascus, we framed ourselves in the large wooden welcome sign. Taking the opportunity to make a video blog, we then looked for a place to stay. First order of business was to find Steve and Lauren who were coming into town that morning. As we were trying to find a phone to see where they were, we actually found them walking down the main street. We greeted them and decided the first order of business was to find chow. We knew where to find big burgers in town, the local diner Dairy King. I ordered mine with Mozzarella sticks and chili. After the milkshake, we went to find a place to stay. As this was a special event where we would have many visitors and having slept on hard wooden boards, we treated ourselves to the Lazy Fox Inn. The place was nice enough and run by an 85 years young lady. The river ran around the back of the house and we were shown our room. Just to get some extra calories we went to the grocery for some quick snacks. I was still hungry and grabbed an entire box of Ritz Bits and a stuffed cookie with icing. Hazard just grabbed two Gatorades. Steve and Lauren said their goodbyes soon afterwards.

Coming up the main street we see our old buddy Arthur, who changed his name to Croc, standing outside the hostel. “I’m looking to grab a beer later if you guys are interested.” We decided to join him for that and after settling more of our stuff at the B&B, we went to Dot’s, the only place in town that served alcohol. It was hot and we were pretty full from lunch when we got inside so we only ordered some chicken fingers and a beer to settle in to watch the NHL game on the TV. Eventually, around 8:00, the bar was closing and turned their lights off on us to get us moving out. Trudging back to the Lazy Fox without having seen Croc was hard enough on stiff legs. We did run across a man who ran, what seemed to be a hostel ,out of his home and allowed us to make free long distance calls and gave us snacks. Uploading the pictures to the computer was a long process and as I was writing, my cousin Jamie messaged me. I was shocked to read that she wanted to come visit me the next day as it was quite last minute. I warned her that we would probably be pretty boring, being that we only wanted to sit around and do nothing, but she was adamant about it. After the conversation, Hazard and I just laid around watching television in the living room; a great way to end a day.

The beds were great and we slept wonderfully and woke to breakfast on the table. A beautiful spread of pancakes, biscuits, gravy, eggs, fresh fruit, and all the accouterments were laid before us. The woman who ran the B&B sure knew how to cater to hikers. We exchanged stories of our travels with everyone else at the table. Very full, we knew Hazard’s dad would be arriving soon so we waited around for him. He showed up just as I was checking the computer to find a message waiting for me from Jamie saying she would be a little late. In the meantime, we gave Mr. Gunther the most recent updates and told him about the trail. We tried to tell the hostess that we would like to stay another night, but she had already booked the room. We gathered our things and were packing them in Mr. Gunther’s car when Jamie rolls up with her husband Jonathan. She quickly parks and tells me she had been getting lost in the town for quite some time. Nevertheless we need to find another place to stay for the night.

We new a few of the B&Bs around the town from the previous day and Augusta’s Inn seemed to meet our budget and our needs best. The sign outside said ‘No Vacancy’, but it was just left over from the previous day. We knocked on the door and were greeted and shown all the amenities. Mr. Gunther decided to pitch for the room (thanks again!) and we took the only one with two beds. They even gave us a computer to use when we go back. “I’ll just lay your laptop on your bed.” With the big screen plasma television and the fact that they were going to have wine and juice out for us at 4:30 that evening, we knew we had made the right decision. Mr. Gunther wanted to take us out for lunch so Hazard hopped in his car and I went with Jamie and Jonathan.

Driving around Abingdon, VA looking for something other than regular fast food or diners, we came across a nice restaurant with folks sitting on the balcony in their Sunday best. We pulled in and realized very quickly that we were under dressed. I was in my board shorts and an old cotton t-shirt, and Hazard was wearing clothes his father had brought him, a T-shirt and shorts. This was a very nice restaurant serving brunch. Ignoring the fact that we were out of place, we ordered steak and eggs with a fruit side. It tasted delicious, especially after the kinds of breakfasts we’ve been enduring. Mr. Gunther and my cousins paid for our meals and we headed out. Jamie and Jonathan said their goodbyes and went to bike the Virginia Creeper Trail. The rest of us went to find a device to allow us to more easily upload photos and to grocery shop.

We purchased the meals for the next few days (until Atkins, VA) and headed back to Damascus. We then went to the local outfitter to see about replacing some gear. We spotted Loyal again outside the hostel and asked him to join us for dinner later. Mr. Gunther then said his goodbyes and left us at the B&B. Later we went back to the hostel to pick up Loyal for dinner. We dined on pizza and garlic bread and soon got full. We walked back up to the B&B with Loyal and shared our wine and comforts with him as we were the only ones there. We watched The Godfather Part II and relaxed for the rest of the night until Loyal left and we soon went to bed.

The smell of breakfast wafted up to us in the morning. The spread was laid out before us as we sat down in the kitchen. Apparently no one has finished the entire spread in one sitting; no one except us. Stuffed french toast, eggs, biscuits, hash browns all fit comfortably in our stomachs and filled us up. We took it slow out of town, but eventually made it out.
-Spoon

Spoon writes:
The next miles out of Damascus were easy uphill and were switchbacked well. It was about dinner time when Lost Mountain Shelter appeared to us. There were a lot of folks camping around the shelter, but no one seemed to be sleeping in it. The Yukon Boys and one other guy were there and Loyal soon came around the corner. With friends, we ended our day well after making dinner. The shelter was a bit uncomfortable after sleeping on nice beds, but we made it through the night without waking up.

The next day was beautiful. The sun peaked out and we tried to wait for Loyal as we hiked. At Buzzard Rock we waited for him for about 45 minutes and realized he was Twittering too much for us and we proceeded on. We ate lunch at Thomas Knob shelter which is 2 stories tall and supposedly can sleep 20 people. A bunch of weekenders came up, many of them clearly not knowing how to backpack properly, and took their stay at the shelter. We moved on and quickly came across the wild ponies in the area. They were very friendly and hiked along the trail with us. The balds of the Grayson Highlands were stunning, but things seem to lose their luster a bit when you’ve been hiking this long. The views become less spectacular and you are mostly concerned with how rocky the terrain is. We were used to this area though and stumbled across the balds.

Apparently we didn’t realize fully how much rocks slow us down because we stopped short at Wise Shelter that night. Two other hikers came by that night, but they weren’t very talkative. The clouds began to roll in and we feared the next day. We heard the thunder crack over us, but no rain fell.

The next day was cold at wake up. But we knew where we were going to end up that night. A 30 mile day into Partnership Shelter. The entire day we had tunnel vision to get there and I honestly don’t remember much of the hiking, except for the big rain that came in the last 10 miles that soaked everything. For those of you who don’t know, Partnership is a large shelter with showers and you can order pizza and Italian food to the gate of the park, right next to the shelter! We breathed a sigh of relief for the day and relaxed for a bit. The Yukon Boys were already there, but other than that the shelter was empty. Church Mouse came to the shelter later. Not ones to waste time, we went to order food. Our eyes larger than ever, we ordered bacon cheese fries, a large all meat pizza and cheese cake from the Italian restaurant. They raked us with the prices, but we were just excited to have this treat. Hazard went to take a shower while I waited at the gate. Rain began to trickle down but stopped as soon as it started.

The food arrived and I took it back to the Shelter. We had no problem eating every speck of food off our plates after a 30 mile hike day. We saved two pieces of pizza for breakfast and went to sleep. Soon we realized that this was one of the worst shelters to sleep in. The entire night was infested with gnats and we barely got any sleep at all. It was too hot to cover our exposed skin in the sleeping bags, so we angrily had to wait for the morning.

Grumpier than I think I’ve ever been, we packed up among the gnats and giant ants. It wasn’t long into the hike in the morning that the rain began to torrential downpour. Most rain on the trail only lasts for a short while but stays overcast or misty and miserable. This time it persisted for all of the 4 hours into Atkins, VA. The original plan was to only resupply there and move on, but moral was so low at that point, we stopped our trip at about 11:30. We got a room at the cheap motel, the Relax Inn, and made the day all about getting dry. Spirits began to lift as we just sat on the bed. We headed out to find food, and ran into Sal hiking along the highway. We gave him the weather report and tried to make our way to hitch a ride into the grocery store.

After standing in the road for a long time, we eventually got a ride to what essentially was a gas station. We got what we needed, again being pounded with prices. The ride back out was easier to find and we relaxed for the rest of the night.
-Spoon

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 42: June 20, 2009
Travel
From: Catawba Center, VA
To: US 220 Daleville, VA
Beginning: 8:20am
Ending: 5:45pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 19.8
b) other – 1.5 back to trail via hitch
c) AT Mile Marker – 718.6 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Overcast again. Seems to be the norm these days.
PM: Sunny and hot. Really strong wind gusts on top of McAfee Knob & Tinker Cliffs
People: Two Pack & his partner, Sunshine and Marbles (the ‘pottymouthed’ girls in Video Blog 6), Charlene’s parents.
Animals: Giant ant, some shirtless guy…
Money: $1 for Slushie, $761 cumulative
Notes of the day:
AM: After waking up we scarfed as much breakfast as we could to lighten the pack weight. Chatted with Dave, discussing the similarities and differences of the pains of our respective journeys. Unlike us, he was only about 4 days from completing his trip. Awesome adventure, well done sir. We packed up and headed down to the gas station at crossroads to look for a ride. We lucked out and got a ride quickly to the top of the mountain where we left the trail the night before. It was an especially windy day and it got more apparent the higher we got up McAfee Knob. On top of the knob we sat around and took in the view of the nice valley below and the ridge we would be hiking across to Tinker Cliffs.

PM: The ridge was uneventful but we were rewarded with some awesome cliffs. Spoon was already siting out on the cliffs so I grabbed my food bag and water and joined him out in the ledge. We found eating, or really doing anything other than laying around, would be in danger of being blown away by the gusts. Our hats even had to stay next to our packs on the trail. We had to come off the cliffs to eat lunch and shoot a video. We gave Charlene’s parents a call to tell them we had 10 miles to go and would be in town that evening. The rest of the day was coming down to Town. Had a run in with some fresh blueberries on the way down. The trail emptied out right onto highway 220 and our first stop was the gas station for Slushies. One thing we miss out on the trail is ice cold drinks. I got a little ahead of myself and got brainfreeze almost immediately. Gave Charlene’s parents another call and we got picked up and taken to our new home for two days. We were treated to southern fried chicken, mashed potatoes & gravy, peas, and rolls. Once we were lying on a bed and had a TV in front of us there was no way we were moving. Goodnight.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 41: June 19, 2009
Travel:
From: Sarver Hollow Shelter, VA
To: Catawba Center, VA 311
Beginning: 9:00am
Ending: 10:00pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 28.7
b) other – .3 back to AT from Sarver, 1.5 down 311 to Catawba center via police car.
c) AT Mile Marker – 698.8 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Threatening clouds but no rain.
PM: Bright and sunny skies, a little windy.
People: Bad Camper & Colin with a group of people eating and drinking, Officer Josh (who gave us a ride), Dave Castor who is biking across America (www.leftd.blogspot.com)
Animals: Spoon saw a 4 foot long snake cross the trail, but it was gone by the time I got there.
Money: $2 for juice, $760 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Slow morning out of camp because yesterday was so long. Sadly, this trend of late morning/late evening persists until we reach Daleville, VA. Coming up to the AT from from the shelter I notice Spoon was missing his hat so he had to run back to the shelter to get it. I pushed on and waited for him at the top of the mountain where we joined back up with the AT. Hiked along the ridge until we got down to VA 621 and from there it was three long miles, but well graded trail, to the top of Brushy Mountain (The 7th one we’ve hiked so far) and at the top waiting for us was a bench. When life gives you a bench, you sit on it and then decide to have lunch on it.

PM: Afterwards, it was a short distance along the ridge to the Audie Murphy Monument where we paid our respects to the most extreme guy in WWII. Then per usual we came all the way down to a road, VA 620 only to go all the way back up to Dragon’s Tooth. For Spoon’s perspective, check out Video Blog 06. In a nutshell, this was one of the hardest climbs we’ve had so far both up and down. On the way up there were a lot of times I wondered where the trail went and when I saw the white blaze on top of a rock I couldn’t believe I had to climb over it. Most of the last part of the mountain was hand-over-hand climbing over rocks and this is with full packs on! When we got to what we thought was the top we dropped packs and had a candy bar. Then when we actually got to the top we were so done with the mountain we skipped the side trail to the overlook and began descending. I shouldn’t have been surprised when the down was even harder and just downright dangerous. The rocks were so big and steep there were steel rungs drilled into the face of them. Due to the unforeseen difficulty of Dragon’s Tooth we spent way too much time on the mountain which meant we got really behind on daylight. We spent a good hour hiking across a ridge in the dark until we got to VA 311 parking lot. While I was wandering up and down the road to make sure it was our location a police cruiser pulled up and out stepped officer Josh. He was a really friendly guy that was out checking on the thru-hikers. He supplied us with water and information about the trail ahead and then about the biker staying down at the Catawba Center. By the time we finished talking it was really late so we asked for a ride down to the Catawba Center and he took us one-by-one because Zeke the Labrador was riding in the back, and he already had someone up front. At CC we met Dave who was already in his sleeping bag on top of a picnic table. Quick introductions and then dinner because we were starving. Then sleeeeep.

Quote of the day: “How many false peaks on the way to Dragon’s Tooth does it take before a hiker goes insane? Answer: About one more…” – Hazard from (unknowingly) the last false peak on Dragon’s Tooth.