Date: 2013-05-25
From: Daleville (again)

To: Wilson Creek Shelter
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: clear sky

I left after getting everything done in town: breakfast, organizing stuff to mail or pack, cleaning out my water filter & water bottle, figuring out how to dry the clothes I'd washed last night, hitching a ride to the post office & Kroger store, eating lunch at Pizza Hut, calling Susan -- I suppose there must have been a little loafing somewhere in there too -- and re-doing a Trail Journal from last night. The man who gave me a ride had several 6 to 10-year-old girls in the back; they were all excited about going backpacking in a couple of weeks. I finally started at 2:15. The first few miles are relatively flat, winding around the valley thru pastures & trees to avoid the development & major highways. Some parts of it are maintained by mowing. After walking thru a freshly mowed area, I met a woman with a mower. We talked a little, & I brought up my work on the North Country Trail. She said they had hiked part of it in North Dakota & maybe a bit in Northern Wisconsin. I mentioned that I had met someone in the last couple of days who had hiked it in the Porcupine Mtns in the U.P, which is where I've done my work. Just then, a man came up with a weed-whacker, & it turned out to be the same man, who had given me a ride from the Catawba Grocery, talked about the NCT, & was an AT maintainer himself. Then she called him "Homer", & I finally recognized him as the man who had given me a ride last week from Roanoke after his wife missed me at the Greyhound station! I sure am slow sometimes!After a few more pastures (in one, a cow was blocking access to a bridge, but moved when I spoke to it), it was mostly uphill to Fullhardt Knob shelter. I had a snack there & talked with "Wrong-Way Grace", a SOBO section hiker. Then Lady & Homebrew arrived, followed by another hiker, who said he was planning to move on to the next shelter. I was too, since it seemed too early to stop. That makes me feel like an experienced hiker -- I can remember a time when it totally boggled my mind to think of going another 6 miles at 6:00 in the evening. This turned out to feel like real Virginia Trail: I did the 6.2 miles in 2 hours, 35 minutes: 2.4 mph. Actually, except for one hill, I was going faster than that! Just nice, easy trail without steep ups & downs & few rocks. That really makes the difference, even with a pretty full pack.When I got to the Wilson Creek shelter, there was plenty of room. UV & Whole Bean were tenting, having stopped early because he fell into the water in fording the last creek. They had stayed at the fire station in Troutville for free, including showers -- what luck! And only one fire alarm during the night! The last few miles showed the variability of light & dark in the mtns. Walking in the evening, on a Trail that goes up & down & around the hills, I sometimes was in bright daylight & sometimes in pretty dark places, where it was hard to see everything on the trail. It makes a tremendous amount of difference whether a shelter is on the East or West side of the Mtn, as to how much light you have on the evening or getting going in the morning.