Date: 2015-06-05
From: Catawba Shelter

To: Troutville City Park
Miles today: 14.6

I had thought that after my injury that at least it couldn't get any worse than that. Well, things can and certainly get worse and did. I didn't get much sleep as every time I rolled onto my shoulder I woke up in agony. It felt like getting stabbed with a knife when I did. I was still the only person at the shelter when I woke up and got packed up after breakfast. I was going to town so I put part of my money in the top of my pack so if my wallet was stolen I wouldn't lose all of my money and prepared to hit the trail. At the last minute I had to use the privy and when I was almost there I saw someone come into camp. I was gone for about 5 minutes and when I got back to the shelter I found no one around and the top of my pack open and my money gone. The brain of the pack had been dumped out onto the shelter floor. I ran around frantically looking for footprints with my headlamp on as to what direction the thief had taken, to no avail. It was raining hard so I couldn't see any tracks leaving the shelter and I was too tired, sore and brokenhearted to give chase, so I sat at the shelter for a long time and wept. Over the next hour or so I went through the four cycles of loss. I went through denial thinking this can't be happening to me and how can I be so stupid! Then rage thinking of what I'd do if I caught up with the person, and having to let that go. Then I had to accept that there was nothing that I could do about it and to take the good with the bad in life. Then I grieved knowing that I was not going to make it to Maine with the money I had left. I thought that I would go to the festival and enjoy it and then go home with the money I had left. I was able to enjoy a bittersweet, but beautiful hike over McAfee Knob past the Campbell shelter to the Tinker Cliffs thinking that I at least had a day hiker named Cameron to take my picture and video, at the most photographed spot on the trail. I found an office chair on wheels by the woods, that I used for my picture where we had only limited visibility. I put the chair back by the edge of the woods so it wouldn't fall and possibly injure someone below. The series of Tinker cliffs had my spirits up as the views were progressively opened as visibility cleared to the whole valley. It was a long and exhausting descent into town with the view of a large river dominating the view for some time along with large high voltage PowerLines that scarred the hillsides. I had to take periodic safety meetings to manage the shoulder pain. At one point I was, foolishly, jogging along with my arm held immobilized by my hip belt, when I hit a patch of mud and fell forward, falling directly on my shoulder! I lay there unable to move as my good arm was trapped underneath me. I had to unstrap my pack and crawl out from under it. I was so frustrated and furious that for a few moments I didn't even notice that the pain in my shoulder had decreased greatly! I must have knocked something back into place as there was much less pain now! I stopped in at the Lamberts Meadeow Shelter and warned the hikers about the theft from my pack. They offered a safety meeting which helped with the shoulder pain which I took while eating lunch. Past the shelter was a enormous boulder that hangs over the trail at a 45o angle and another boulder just past it. In the gap in between was a pile of rocks and I saw a 9" lizard sunning itself on one of the rocks. I was able to take a number of good pictures before I got a bit too close and it scampered off. There were a lot of giant boulders along the trail that you have to go over and around. Running out of water I stopped at a stream where I happened to look up and see some unripe Mulberries! I was exhausted after over 18 miles of hiking when I arrived Daleville where I stopped in at the gas station for a BBQ sandwich, chips and a drink. I then walked on the trail head and caught a ride to Troutville to the city park. Arriving at the Troutville city park where the camping was and the festival would be happening in the morning. I heard from one of the hikers that there was free dinner down the street. I two other hikers walked the quarter mile down the street to where the local church fed us dinner, and I arrived just in time for the prayer! Dinner was fried chicken, salad, mashed potatoes, drinks and ice cream for desert! It was awesome and very filling! I found out that the fire department had generously offered us the use of their showers and laundry facilities which I took full advantage of. Clean and refreshed, I walked back to the park and visited with the hikers and enjoyed a couple of beers and a safety meeting while we talked. Whatever had happened when I fell that morning had helped as the pain was at a much lower level during the day. Some of the vendors had already set up while others were still arriving and setting up still. The tent area was pretty loud and boisterous so I found a unique spot to cowboy camp under the large pavilion. Also camping under the pavilion were a number of cyclists who were going cross country and some of the other hikers, like me had joined them there. There were 2 Giant Tables, 4'x 8' that were about 4' tall. They had a shelf underneath with about 2.5' of clearance and there I decided to cowboy camp as there was enough room for me to sleep. I liked that spot as it was out of the light and I was unlikely to get stepped on later in the dark. It was getting dark outside so I got set up and went to bed a little bit after dark listening to my iPod.