Date: 2006-10-10
From: Knot Maul Branch Shelter

To: Chatfield Shelter
Miles today: 18.4
Weather: clear sky

Day 131 (Tuesday)Up @ 7am' 1st on trail @ 7:30 (shooting for a 25 mi day w/ a townstop) Breakfast on the go - 3 quaker oatmeal breakfast cookies. Up & down a few hills & crossed a few cow pastures before being caught briefly by Reils. Hiked on over Guillon Mtn & arrived @ Davis Path Shelter around 1 pm (11 mi from start). Read the register whick contained info about a recommended side trip to a local winery & numerous good reviews about a restaurant @ US11 called the barn. Hiked on around 1:30 (Reils caught me @ the shelter) & reached the road to the winery @ 2:30 (VA 627) & decided to sop in. Trip was a fairly long 0.4 +/_ 0.1 mi roadwalk, but it was cool to see the vineyard. Tasting is supposed to be $3 for 6 wines & you get to keep the glass, but the guy waived the fee after I told him I couldn't pack the glass out. Solid lineup of wines - american varietals from vines from the Finger lakes of NY in European styles - all good. Returned to the AT @ 3pm & reached US 11 @ 3:20. Ran into Reils @ the Mobilmart & caught a quick hitch to the Post office. Picked up my drop box & bounce box (1st time since VT) & pulled some vitamin I, benadryll, extra T.P., gorp, & aqua mira out of my bounce box & forwarded it to Erwin, TN (clerk made me send it priority since it had priority mail tape all over it). Hitched back to "The Barn" restaurant where I found Gentleman Jack who had camped 3 mi behind me the night before & had just eaten lunch there w/ Reils. (Btw, got cell service for 1st time in 6 days & pickeed up 2 messages from Tentpole & 1 from Jack's dad - apparently Jack & T.P. arrived in Pearisburg the same day as me, took a zero there & stayed in a motel both nights. Jack adjusted his rendezvous w/ his family north & forward 1 day, so no more need to hit Damascus on friday. Left a note on trail w/ Jack's dad's message to him between Davis Path Shelter & the Winery @ a sign for a water source which advised hikers to fill up there b/c the next source was contaminated (dead cow)(I didn't fill up b/c I was <3 mi from town - didn't see any dead cows either). Anyway, had a chili cheeseburger, fries, okra & sweet tea at the barn & Jack had the fried chicken dinner (2nd meal there) & we walked over to the mobil mart for Jack to resupply & got a little debbie cosmic brownie & aquafina bottle to replace the 1 I had left for T-man (who Jack reported having found alert & oriented w/ no mention of his detour - although he was eating apples voraciously). Realized I forgot to get AAA batteries for my headlamp as soon as I got outside, but figured it could wait until Damascus. Mobilmart had a nice collection of confederate themed trucker hats, as well as AC/DC. Jack suggested I get one since it would be funny when people asked where I was from & I said NJ, but I declined. They also had showers there. On trail around 6pm. Stopped @ Settler's museum & saw old school house & signed their hiker log. Passed 1 NOBO "secion hiker" doing a 500 mi trip of his own design which intersects the AT briefly @ 7pm & arrived @ Chattfield shelter around 7:30 where we saw Reils again and stayed the night. Dinner - salmon couscous (sweet & sour) good, but I had to force it downb/c I wasn't actually that hungry after the chili cheesebrger (too heavy not to eat). Register had a great cartoon about mullet-sporting rednecks shooting holes in the AT signs; took a pic which came out pretty well - wish I'd thought of that sooner. In bet 9:30 pm