Date: 2014-05-19
From: Pine Swamp Branch Shelter - Stony Creek Valley Lot

To: War Spur Shelter
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Sunday, May 18th, Bandit's 8th birthday, and he had to ride in the car ALL day. We made our way by mini-van uneventfully from Wisconsin to Daleville, VA where we checked into the Howard Johnson Express. Nice place that provides awesome hiker rates and a great breakfast. I unloaded all our gear from the van into the hotel room and did the final sorting and packing before crashing into bed.Rose early on Monday, May 19th, pottied my puppies, showered, and did all the final cramming of gear into packs. Bandit knew what was coming and was jumping all around. Jackson had no clue what was about to unfold but got all excited just because Bandit was. I headed off to the great breakfast buffet where I ran into thru-hikers. I felt strangely yet too clean. Our first transport was with our buddy and guardian angel Don Raines. He arrived around 9 a.m. and drove us back south to the Pine Swamp Branch Shelter - Stony Creek Valley Parking Lot, our exit from the trail in 2013.We made our way down the trail about a mile before stopping and filling our empty water bladders/bottles from the river across from The Captain's. Things were pretty uneventful throughout the morning and early afternoon. It was a beautiful clear day with blue skies and cool temperatures. It was fun to watch Jackson learn the ropes of long distance hiking from Bandit who quickly fell into his even paced hiking cadence. The first river crossing had a beautiful wooden bridge for the hikers but this seemed to confuse Jackson. He ran across the entire bridge, then back to the south end again, where he promptly decided the best way to get to the other side of the river was to swim the river, backpack and all!!! What a character!After our big climb of 1500' for the day we stopped at Bailey Gap Shelter for second breakfast. Late lunch was had at Lone Pine Peak, just before our 2000' decent to our campsite for the night. Lone Pine Peak is a favorite Scenic Overlook for locals and we found many up there. Most memorable was a family with five children who all had a ton of questions and wanted to pet the dogs. While we sat on a rock outcropping and I pulled out the cheese, peanut butter, and crackers for our lunch, Jackson and Bandit crowded in to participate. In an instant, one of the smaller children came up behind Jackson who snapped at the child thinking the child was going to steal his lunch. Dad scooped up the toddler and I grabbed Jackson and seriously reprimanded him. Dear God, if he'd hurt that child, I'd never have forgiven myself. It was clear that a much tighter rein was going to have to be kept on this young rascal. There was so much apologizing going on after that, parents to me and me to them. We all just hadn't seen it coming.We all posed for pictures in the late day's sun as I skeptically eyed the thru-hikers who were quickly passing by hoping to still reach their destinations before dark. I did some quick map calculations and figured we'd better hustle along too and said our good-byes.It wasn't more than 1/4 mile after the start of our decent that Jackson tripped over a small stick in the middle of the path, let out a yelp, and started walking on three legs! Really, Jackson, NOW WHAT! It's just the first day!!! I checked out his front right paw but didn't see anything obvious. He quickly returned to using all four paws and we headed off to War Spur Shelter.We arrived around 7 p.m. and appeared to be the only hikers in for the night. We located a nice spot, setup our tent, and settled in. Several thru-hikers came and went before several stopped here for the night. It was this next moment that was the first of a string of future moments over the next several days that clued me in that Jackson wasn't the fearless puppy that I or my other dog friends had envisioned him to be. A thru-hiker with a full beard hiked into camp who went by Indy. Bandit's normal drill is to alert on new arrivals and Jack was backing him up, but when he got a load of Indy and his full beard, he backed away and refused Indy's offer of a pet. Bandit of course was all about warming up to Indy. Jackson's reaction puzzled me and I filed the reaction for later pondering.Indy and I setup for dinner. He used only a real fire to cook by and it was fun to watch him work the fire and his cooking as he chattered on-and-on. He and other hikers settled into the Shelter and I went to hang by bear bag. I was promptly laughed at "No one does that anymore, we haven't done it since Damascus!" Really? "Yeah, why on earth would you do THAT with TWO dogs in your tent?" I bought it hook, line, and sinker, and never once ended up hanging my bear bag for the entire 15 day hike! Food and all went straight in my tent. Somehow this just didn't seem like a good idea, but ok, if that's truly what the thru-hikers are now doing in mid-Virginia! Um-OK?Once settled in the tent, I took a much closer look at Jackson's foot. His nail was in good shape, but he had a terrible cut. I gave him some pain meds, put Neosporin on it, and wrapped it in vet's wrap for the night. Poor baby. Then it was lights out!