Date: 2016-05-24
From: Creeper Trail

To: Thomas Knob Shelter
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: clear sky

5/25Mayfly and I camped out where the AT reconnected to the Creeper Trail last night. We tried to fish until dark when the fly hatch was best. We spoke to a nice local who was also fly fishing and he gave us some pointers. We did exactly slat the trout all day, but we did manage to catch a handful and enjoy the Creeper Trail.This morning we woke up and packed our gear quickly, the goal was to walk about 18 miles to Thomas Knob Shelter at mile marker 497.1 (yes I break 500 miles tommorow!). As we were packing Gaio came through and we chatted a while. It seems there is a big bubble out of Damascus with lots of hikers ahead of us and lots behind.We walked down the Creeper Trail and spoke to a nice Forest Service gal who told us if we crossed the river/creek we could join up to the AT with no backtracking. We saw a tent on the other side and saw it was Wallet.... A guy we met at Woodchuck. So we fished the river a moment (I missed a trout) and then we crossed to the AT side. To get across we carried out boots and went barefooted. It was cold and over my knees in places. After fishing a few more minutes and visiting with Wallet we put up the fly rods and picked up hiking.We soon met up with Chejesus and Two Step (a young Wisconsin couple), Haiku (who has quotes tattooed all over his body and is a super cool guy) and Bear Bait (a college grad from Florida). I also met a hiker named Rocksteady today.We hiked with Bear Bait most the morning and early afternoon. She was carrying a folding chair she picked up at the first shelter. The game is for the chair to go all the way to Maine in a relay. Anyone who carries it gets to sign their name on it. She carried it all the way to Thomas Knob Shelter... Then G.O.T. sat in it!!!!We saw some good balds and views tiday. Along the way we met Cake (she was also at Woodchuck). Mayfly, Cake and I did the 4 to 5 "Hour of Power" and killed about 3.5 miles. It is fun to see exactly how far you can go in an hour and to push yourself.While we were hiking we met Raven who was SOBO. I want to say he was s section hiker... But I don't know? He recognized me from the blog here. I thanked him for reading my updates.Not longer after that we had our first encounter with VA wild horses. There were several including two colts. One big gray one kept following me and was trying to lick the salt off of my arms and legs. I finally gave in. I basically received a horse tongue shower. The horse kinda nipped at times. When we were ready to go the horse tried to block the trail so I could not leave. Then he went up to Cake. She was not about to be a human salt lick so we shooed the horse away and hiked on.When we arrived at the shelter there was a big group here. Many hikers we saw in the day were now prepping to camp here. Some moved on from the shelter as there were camps up the way. Mayfly and I decided to shelter camp.We all cooked dinner and as we were sitting outside Haiku recited Edgar Allen Poes's "the Raven" from memory. I was impressed and it was a great end of a great day. It was not until I was up in the shelter loft when I realized I met a hiker named Raven and out of pure coincidence heard Haiku's recital.