Date: 2005-09-18
From: Petites Gap, Va.

To: Near Taylors Mountain Overlook, Va.
Miles today: 32.1

I woke up at 6am after another very good night's sleep. I made my coffee and ate a couple Little Debbie fried cherry pies for breakfast. I was packed up and walking at 6:55am. I knew I wanted to walk long enough today so I would have a short day into Daleville tomorrow. I started the morning off with a 1300 foot climb up to Thunder Hill. I caught a few glimpses of a nice sunrise through the trees on my way up that first mountain. I could see it come up over some distant mountains. I walked past Thunder Hill Shelter and then up to the summit of Apple Orchard Mountain which was over 4200 high. I went through the Guillotine just before the summit. That's a 4 foot round rock that's stuck between two rock walls and you have to walk under it. The next 10 miles took me down 3000 feet. There were a few 300 to 500 foot ups, but it was mostly downhill. I was getting bombarded with acorns that are falling now. I didn't get hit with any, but they were falling all around me. When I got to the bottom, I stopped at Bryant Ridge Shelter and got some water and signed the register. There was a huge tree that had fallen over not long ago and landed in the fire pit in front of the shelter. I'm glad it didn't land on the shelter because it's one of the nicer shelters on the trail. I hiked on and in about a mile, I saw a stream that looked better than the one by the shelter, so I dumped all my water out and refilled it from there. I climbed 800 feet up to the top of Fork Mountain, then down 1000 feet to Jennings Creek. I climbed back up 1100 feet and walked by Cove Mountain Shelter without stopping. From there it was another 800 feet up to the summit of Cove Mountain. The rest of the day didn't have anything more than 500 feet to go up or down. I walked down 500 feet to Bearwallow Gap. I kept looking for water because I was about out. It had been very dry for the last 10 miles. There was a little water running by the road, but I don't drink water next to a road, so I kept on walking. I got to Bobblets Gap Shelter in a little over 4 miles and walked to .2 miles downhill to it. I didn't want to do that, but I needed water. The spring was dry. I looked around and found a trickle of water down the hill. It took 8 minutes to fill each one litre water bottle. I drank one, so I ended up waiting to fill up 3 bottles. I signed the register and walked back up to the trail and headed south. The trail followed fairly close to the Blue Ridge Parkway for the next 5 miles. I could see it sometimes from the trail. It seemed pretty busy for this late in the day. I found a nice soft tent spot and did something I almost never do. I got in and set my stove outside and cooked my dinner and ate it in my tent. Hey Scarf, I ate that spagetti marinara you gave me at Bears Den...thanks, it was very good. There's an outfitter in Daleville and I hope to still get my new headlamp, but I think I've changed my mind on getting a new shirt. I've worn this one with all the holes in it since Delaware Water Gap. I'm going to take off about 5 days and go to The Gathering in about 2 1/2 weeks and then picking up my truck and driving it back south afterwards. Well, I've got a brand new shirt sitting in my truck. I'll just have to look "experienced" until after The Gathering. :-))) Oh yeah, I've changed my diagnosis of these little things that look like bites on my legs from chiggers to systemic poison ivy left over from when I had that poison ivy on my legs about 2 weeks ago. I sure hope it works itself out of my system soon. Does any one know if it will vanish on it's own, or do I need to do something else??