Date: 2016-06-04
From: sarver hollow shelter

To: pickle branch shelter
Miles today: 16.1
Weather: clear sky

Day 54Dregs here, As I lay here writing this we are nestled into our tent listening to a potentially severe thunderstorm roll in. All camp chores are done and food has been had. We have no dead trees near by and feel pretty safe about our tent site. It is the first day in 3 days where we have stayed dry, unless of course you count sweat. We have a not terribly challenging day heading into what is billed as the best restaurant on the trail tomorrow and a long but relatively flat day after that leading into a day off in town. Not a bad feeling at all.I awoke at 430 am this morning after trying to take a sip from my water bladder and finding it empty. This was particularly concerning because I went to sleep with a full 2 liters. After a very short investigation with my hand I found an almost inch deep puddle in the lowest corner of the tent which luckily was also where the water bladder was. This meant that only things I decided the night before to place in the low corner would be wet. Things like my cell phone and external battery......I moved the electronics and placed a fleece jacket in the small body of water adjacent to my down filled sleeping bag and decided that this was a problem for a later version of myself. Perhaps he would be able to deal with it because it was far beyond me. I awoke in the morning feeling sorry for myself. Between the aforementioned flood and loosing the gasket on my water filter the previous evening, I was feeling down on my luck. The missing gasket means that I will have to spill water everywhere when I filter it and gather more than I would otherwise need. I put my woes out of mind and set myself to my tasks. I resolved not to get super grumpy and ruin ChickenHawks day too. I warned her that it was going to take a while to pack up and I started carefully pulling my things out of the tent. After a while I was all packed up with no damage to my phone or battery.I walked over to the shelter and found out from ChickenHawk that Stick had an even worse night than I did. He was not feeling well but was planning on hiking anyway. The group of Stick, Danger, Brew, Red Dragon and Storm Trooper was planning on only going 16 to a shelter. They would then hike a short day to a hostel tomorrow and shuttle into Catawba VA where The Home Place restaurant is. We plan to stick with them today but skip the hostel and hike all the way to Catawba. We started out with a long climb back to the trail from the shelter. The trail was flat for a while but the day was hot. At a forkin the trail we followed schnitzel to the left for about 100 feet before realizing it was the wrong direction. The trail led onto a slanted rock face that was not the easiest to walk on. After a quarter mile or so I saw ChickenHawk jump back. She had apparently almost hit a rattlesnake with her trekking pole. 2 days in a row we saw rattlers that were in the trail and didn't rattle. After we were by it I again nudged it off the trail. This time we were rewarded with the classic and unmistakable sound of an agitated Rattlesnake. The rest of the day was hot and moderately difficult. We flip flopped back and fourth with our friends and saw some cool things like the Audie Murphy Memorial. Near the end of the day we came to a stream right before a mile long climb to the finish. The gang was set up and going to camp there for the night. ChickenHawk and I sadly pressed on to get us closer to our destination for the next day. Hopefully we will see them at dinner. We marched up the hill to the shelter and got situated just before the storm arrived. It has been raining the whole time I have been writing this however it seems all of the crazy thunder and lightning has passed. ChickenHawk is fast asleep next to me and it's time I join her.