Mountains Under Foot

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 40: June 18, 2009
Travel:
From: Pine Swamp Branch Shelter, VA
To: Sarver Hollow Shelter, VA
Beginning: 8:30am
Ending: 8:30pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 24.9
b) other – .3 down to Sarver Hollow Shelter
c) AT Mile Marker – 670.1 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Sun tried to peak through early this morning.
PM: Got some good sun here and there, but most importantly, it didn’t rain. Was really windy on top of the mountains.
People: All alone in the shelter tonight. Met a Boy Scout troop at the shelter before this one.
Animals: a herd of burros…
Money: $0, $758 cumulative
Notes of the day:
AM: It was a morning that I was feeling lucky and decided to start the day with the pack cover off. The skies were muddled and gray but the sun was making an effort so I had hope. The morning walk had us following Stoney Creek, but like everything out here it wasn’t a cakewalk. The trail took us up and over a bunch of mountains before finally arriving at the bridge to cross the creek. I was taken by surprise by the size and construction of the bridge, which was obviously new.

PM: Can’t remember where we had lunch. That’s what happens when you get behind in one’s journals. However, we did meet an interesting crowd at Laurel Creek Shelter. There was a couple hiking SOBO, a man in a ‘utili-kilt’ (I think with his sons), and a Boy Scout troop. The troop was the last remaining “Liberty” troop, which means they were established in the 1910s for the purpose of selling liberty bonds. They had a bunch of questions about us thru-hiking the AT, but alas we couldn’t stay long. A major hurdle was getting across that creek which was bloated from recent rain and had basically no “safe” way to cross. We somehow shimmied, shuffled, or Tarzan-ed across without getting too wet. Then about the only memorable thing after that was this massive oak tree called Keffer Oak that I think I got a picture of; because it was the biggest oak I had seen…ever. The shelter at the end of the day was one of the swankiest we’ve been in so far. The book modestly labels the shelter as having room for 6 people. I properly crossed it out and replaced it with 30. This shelter was huge! Plus, we were the only ones there, probably because it was a third of a mile off the trail down a steep trail. It was well worth it. I made a fire to ward off flying insects and went to sleep.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 39: June 17, 2009
Travel:
From: Plaza Motel, Pearisburg, VA
To: Pine Swamp Branch Shelter, VA
Beginning: 11:00am
Ending: 7:00pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 19.3
b) other – 1 mile to get back on trail from town
c) AT Mile Marker 646.2 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Cloudy and looking nasty. Rained while we climbed to the top of the ridge.
PM: Stayed dry most of the afternoon, but the wet grass soaked our boots.
People: Ted, a very talkative SOBO (a South Bounder, a person hiking the AT from north to south) section hiker with two dogs. Two other guys showed up at the shelter one knew us the other didn’t. Sorry, didn’t catch the names.
Animals: This bright orange-red salamander with bright orange spots in two lines down his back.
Money: $6 for breakfast, $758 cumulative
Notes of the day:
AM: Rolled out of bed around 9am and put the weather channel on; it looked like most of the rain was past us. Packed everything up and went down the street to Hardee’s for breakfast. It was scary how many elderly people were there, but then I found out they had coupons, so it made sense. Got back on the trail and wandered through some people’s backyards and ended up on a bridge over the New River. Giles County apparently boasts some large number of miles of the New River that passes through it. On our way up the mountain to the ridge, Spoon was complaining about his pack weight up the hill. It got so bad that he said his legs were going to give out, so he dropped his pack and pulled out a container of Nutella he has pulled from the hiker box at the motel and his candy bars. He had bought so many bars he was overloaded. I ate one of his Butterfingers and he had a Watchamacallit. Four Snickers joined the Nutella on the side of the trail. For shame. Although he said he felt better, weight wise, after the dump.

PM: Hike, hike, hike, all the way to camp. The shelter was the same style as Trimpi Shelter which meant it had a fireplace in the center of the back wall flanked by lofted sleeping area. Naturally Spoon and I built a fire after dinner with moist wood to keep the bugs down and to enjoy its warm glow. Went to sleep soundly that night. Ted was talking so much it took me forever to write my journal and I was already behind one day.

Quote of the day: “Ya’ll going to have to use small words, you’re in a small town.” – Hardee’s employee

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 38: June 16, 2009
Travel:
From: Woods Hole Hostel, VA
To: Plaza Motel, Pearisburg, VA
Beginning: 12:45pm
Ending: 5:00pm-ish
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 10.4
b) other – 1-2 miles wandering around town
c) AT Mile Marker – 625.9 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Poured rain all morning.
PM: Rain stopped soon after we started hiking, but we were walking in a cloud all afternoon. Rained on us a few times too.
People: Said goodbye to Neville & Michael, a couple people that gave us rides, and we ran into Patch at the Wal-mart.
Animals:
Money: $7.50 for breakfast + $7.50 donation (work-stay rules), $8 for dinner, $8 for birthday treats. $752 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Another great breakfast spread by Neville and Michael of eggs, sausage, biscuits & gravy, grits, and another platter of blueberry pancakes (requested by Checkpoint & Coldfeet). We ate it all! I ended up doing most of the dishes, while Spoon dried. The rain was still coming down hard so Spoon and I tried to wait it out. Spoon took a nap and I packed up my stuff. I showed Michael some things about Bluehost and some plugins on our website. Neville had here wedding invitations spread out across the dinning table and had One-step and Checkpoint handwriting the address on the return envelopes. These guys had surprisingly beautiful handwriting and were easily coerced into doing work.

PM: Rain was still coming down after noon, so we decided we were going to have to hike in the rain at least to Pearisburg. We said goodbye to everyone and saddled up. By the time we got a quarter mile up the road, the rain had stopped. Good timing. We ended up having a good hour and a half without rain but the inevitable happened – it rained and it rained a lot. Tapered off by the time we got to town (the trail came down through some people’s backyards) and then when we were standing around at the Rendezvous Motel it came pouring down again. We asked them how the motels were further in town and where town was and got referred to the Plaza Motel. So we got back out on the street and headed into town. Thankfully a nice lady and her son gave us a ride up to the motel. Spoon payed for the room as a birthday gift and we immediately got showers and handed our nasty clothes to the lady we booked the room from. I borrowed some clothes from the hiker box and looked ridiculous for awhile, but I needed both sets of clothes washed. We set out for Wal-mart to get bug spray and a notebook for Spoon. A couple miles down the road and Spoon stopped because his leg was stiffening and didn’t want to walk any farther so we stuck our thumbs out and got a guy to stop. I told him we were trying to get to Wal-mart and he laughed and said it’s about 20 miles up this road. We were both confused and told him we thought there was one in town and he said it was a couple miles the other direction. I guess we looked pretty bummed because he said he’d take us there anyway. Once we arrived we thanked him and we wandered inside. It wouldn’t be exaggerating when I say we were a little overwhelmed by the massiveness of this place (it was one of those “supercenters”). Once we asked enough people and found what we needed, we ended up in the food section and saw they had a lot of hiker food in good variety and it was cheap. We decided to get our resupply stuff here instead of the Food Lion across from our motel. But not before we had some dinner. Spoon dropped our stuff off on a shelf to come back for later and we headed out. On our way out we ran into none other than Patch! He had been stuck in town for the past couple days because he had to order new boots. They were supposed to be sent overnight to town. We invited him back to the motel for dessert stuffs later if he could get a ride and then headed across the street to Wendy’s for some chow. We came back and got everything we needed from Wal-mart and then were stuck because we were at least two or three miles from the motel and had no idea how to get back. We asked a few people if they were headed that direction and then caught a group of ladies who were and convinced them to take us. The looks on their faces were priceless as they looked at each other trying to decide whether or not to take us. We got back to the motel and immediately left for the Food Lion across the street to pick up a German Chocolate cake, ice cream, and milk. In addition to the Oreoes we picked up earlier we had a massive feast in front of the TV. After the Daily Show and Colbert we passed out in our soft beds and clean sheets.

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…