Date: 2006-05-27
From: Rice Field Shelter

To: War Spur Shelter
Miles today: 25.0
Weather: broken clouds

Just to finish up from yesterday...THE JUMPSTART PEARISBURG PIZZA CHALLENGE:3:15-3:45 pm: Order large cheese pizza (from hometown place that makes them BIG). Eat six slices.3:45-4:00 pm: Walk to Dairy Queen. Eat last two slices. Wish you had room for a toffee cheesequake blizzard.4:05 pm -?: Climb 2000+ vertical feet out of town on the trail. Keep going until the pizza turns to lead in your stomach (or wherever it ends up).It was nice to run into Ribbit and Longhorn, two other hikers I'd gotten to know over Trail Days. They actually gave me a ride back to the trail from Dairy Queen, since Ribbit had gone home and brought a car back. A big storm rolled into town just as I was leaving. I was soaked within five minutes of starting my hike, but it was a warm rain, and I didn't really mind.The shelter I stayed in last night was in a beautiful spot, on one of the grassy balds on a mountaintop. However, it rained and blew and was foggy all night, so there wasn't much to see. Most shelters are located near a water source, but this one's water supply was nearly half a mile back down the mountain on an overgrown rocky trail. I offered to fill Dirt Diva's water container since I was making the trip anyway, and she was thrilled. And I got a Reese's PB cup for my efforts! =). (Unfortunately, the water was all muddy because of the storm, but I found that after letting it sit an hour or two it settled some and I could poor relatively cleaner water off the top.) As the evening progressed the shelter became filled to capacity with hikers coming in out of the rain, and we ended up with eleven people and two dogs in a shelter that was built to hold seven or eight. The couple with the dogs rolled in just before dark, and didn't have a good grasp of trail etiquette. Most thru-hikers with dogs are really good about keeping them quiet and out of the way, but these folks brought their wet muddy dogs up on the already crowded sleeping platform. And since the dogs were apparently prone to running away, we had to hold them while these weekend hikers got set up. It tries your patience when you're just starting to feel good about being warm and dry, thankful that your sleeping bag didn't get soaked in the downpour, and then these dogs start nosing around. Angel and Stinky Pete (the dogs) were little poodles or terriers or something, too small (in my opinion) for the trail. Now don't get me wrong, I like dogs, but usually big ones like retrievers or German shepherds, and NOT in a crowded shelter on a rainy night. It was SO funny though, this morning, when people started to wake up- with no embarrassment at all (in fact, she seemed to think it was brilliant) this lady explained that Angel had slept in the bottom of their sleeping bags all night, but to keep her from running away, she tied Angel's leash to the strap of her sports bra. I'm not making this up! My thought was, "great lady, that way, when she does run away, you lose your dog AND your sports bra." Imagine the surprise of the folks who find this dog running around the woods, lingerie in tow: "hello- what's this!" I guess there's all types out here. The whole rest of the day I was cracking up every time I thought about it.Speaking of the rest of the day, I came across some signs informing me that a bridge was out ahead and to avoid fording the stream I could hike on the road for a while. I forded. It was fun, and I used it as a chance to wash up a bit too.