Date: 2007-06-19
From: .1 mile past Jennings Creek VA

To: Harrison Ground Spring VA
Miles today: 16.5

Last nite was fairly restful. I was a bit uncomfortable with being so close to a road, but watcha gonna do?Hike up a mountain to a shelter with thunder rumbling, or stay low and camp by a road?I actually woke up before my alarm, so I got up and was hiking by 7:15 a.m. The word for today was "climb".Man, I felt like I was back in North Carolina. First it was Fork Mtn., which was pretty steep, but I did manage to maintain a 2 mph pace somehow. I was shooting for Cornelius Creek for water and lunch. I got there about 12:20 p.m., and again, the creek wasn't flowing all that great, but I was still able to get water.I kept running into 2 guys and a girl that call themselves "The Hobbits." And of course Redwood.After Fork Mtn., it was PUDS and then Apple Orchard Mtn. There was 1 great view called Blackrock Overlook, where I climbed up some rocks and just sat there for about 20 minutes. One of the few views in a long time where it was all wilderness to look at, no towns or roads. I was hearing thunder way far away and tried to get a feel for the direction of the cloud travel. I finally left and of course come 2:30 p.m., I start hearing thunder getting much closer. It's been so hot (in the 90's again) so every afternoon, storms spark off. I was at the very bottom of Apple Orchard Mtn. by now, and it was a 1.5 mile climb up to 4,225 feet, which I honestly did not want to get caught on. So, I listened, and the thunder was definitely getting closer so I walked WAY down hill and found a great place to hang my tarp. I just crawled in and lay on the ground, awaiting the storm (while attracting every bug known to human-kind too). I'll admit, I was very nervous and uncomfortable considering my last experience, but my location was far better this time.It started raining, the wind picked up, a few rumbles, and it seemed to be missing me. I decided I'd wait until I heard zero thunder for 20 minutes. Finally, I pack up my tarp and head back up to the trail, and I'll be damed if as soon as I got up there I didn't hear thunder again.So now I'm getting frustrated, because I can't tell if this is another wave or not (total tree coverage). I stood there forever and just listened. It did start to rain a bit harder, but no thunder.I finally made the call to go ahead and hike. The climb up Apple Orchard Shelter was easy compared to Fork Mtn. I got to the top, and it is a bald, so there were some views, but the day was very hazy all day.The plan was to get to Thunder Hill Shelter, cook dinner and move on. I got tere @ 5:00 p.m. The water here was horrible, so bad in fact, I wouldn't use it. It's a spring where it fills into a rock "well", but the well is full of floating algae and junk. I had 1 liter of water, so half of it was used for dinner.In the meantime, Redwood showed up, and he decided to stay. I decided to hike 2.5 more miles to (hopefully) water and then stealth camp somewhere.There were 2 more small climbs, and I'd been sweating buckets all day (like 5 gallon buckets). Even my synthetic head wrap (my Buff) got completely saturated so I had to ring it out! EWWWW! LOLI knew I should be @ this spring around 7:30 p.m., and sure enough, I was. Another thru-hiker, Tennis, is out here with his daughter and grandaughter who are hiking with him for 10 days. Really nice people.There's this crazy deer here that got literally 5 feet away from me and ate some leaves. It gets spooked, runs away, but always loops back around and comes back. Pretty hilarious, and I got a great pic of it. I sure was glad water was available. staying hydrated as been tough the past week.Oh, the COOLEST thing about the hike was I got to see The Guillotine! It's this insane boulder that is wedged between two rock cliffs, and the trail takes you right under it. It looks like the boulder could slip any moment, but it's very secure!I socialized for a few minutes with Tennis, Woodstock, and Snoopy, then found a place to hang. I am exhausted, I hiked for over 12 hours today...ugh.Other wildlife were a big snake with yellow stripes going down the body, deer, and salamandar. It's currently 76 degrees @ 9:20 p.m. In shorts and camisole again, which is lovely. I've got my tarp pitched really wide to get some air movement. ~Certain