Date: 2007-05-18
From: Jenkins Shelter

To: Helvey's Mill Shelter
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: broken clouds

This morning we headed out early as Newt's mom and dad were arriving in the nearby town of Bland to pick him and Bluegrass up for a weekend trip. Kevin and I skipped breakfast, but Bailey ate a huge one. We are carrying more food for her these days because she¢s hungry just like the rest of us hikers and she¢s lost weight. Now we carry both puppy food (higher calories than adult dog food) and pouches of wet food to give her extra nutrition. She used to carry all of her food, but we don¢t want her to carry too much so we¢re carrying extra. The hiking was nice with some gradual uphills before the trail began to curl around the ridges for several miles. Near one road crossing I spotted a white cooler and got excited. When you see these small coolers, it¢s like finding treasure, so it¢s always a letdown when you open the lid and they are empty. I was disappointed but I guess you can¢t always get lucky. I was eager to get the miles done and get into town so I ate a Snickers bar while I walked. Never in my life have I eaten so many Snickers bars, they are so popular out here and I don¢t think I¢ll ever get sick of them. It¢ll be hard to go back to the ¢real world¢ (whatever that is) and not eat them all the time without worrying about calories. When I got to the road into Bland, I waited with Bailey for Kevin to catch up and then we started walking the 2 miles into town along the paved road. Luckily we only had to walk a mile or so when Newt¢s mom pulled up and offered to shuttle us into town. It¢s always great to get a ride because walking on pavement is a real foot killer after walking in the woods. We rode to a little gas station/restaurant and I enjoyed getting to meet Newt¢s mom and dad and it made a lot of sense why he¢s such a nice guy. They were wonderful people and it made me smile to be with family, even if it was someone else¢s. We all filled our bellies with enormous greasy cheeseburgers and cold drinks, hungry from no breakfast. I won¢t do that again! The woman who worked at the gas station deserves for me to praise her as she was one of the kindest people I¢ve met. She tried to offer us rides and gave me coffee and an apple. She was nice to our dogs and it was a real pleasure meeting her and being treated so hospitably by a total stranger. We thought about staying in town at a hotel but it had no vacancy so we said good bye to the Howell¢s and Bluegrass, who were going to have a family weekend and would rejoin us in Pearisburg in a few days. Kevin headed to resupply at a local grocery store and I stayed with Bailey and Maximus as hail started peppering down on the awning over our heads. Luckily the storm passed quickly and we were on the trail again in sunshine. The trail on the other side of Bland was ugly. We walked along the road and the interstate, across an overpass and down a side road. It was hideous and I couldn¢t hear myself think because of the traffic. I was thankful to get out of there and was ready to dive into the sanctuary of the woods by the time we reached them. When the road ended we climbed down for a short ways and then Dan, Maximus, Bailey and I trudged straight uphill on a climb that looked far different in person than it had on the profile map. It was fun, despite the cheeseburger churning in my stomach and it got my heart racing, which is a good feeling at the end of the day. I like to feel like I accomplished something and a little sweat can be great for that! We sped up our pace and hiked the 4/10 of a mile to Helvey¢s Mill Shelter and thought the storm would return because of the blackening sky. We lucked out and it held off. Mattlanta arrived next and being the amazingly generous guy that he is, he decided to go fill up everyone¢s water. It wasn¢t until he returned a long time later that we knew the water was waaaaay downhill and had six switchbacks to get to, all uphill the way back. Poor guy! We felt bad that he¢d had to walk that far. Kevin showed up shortly after and we didn¢t bother cooking dinner, still stuffed from the gas station/restaurant cheeseburgers. We crashed in the shelter because no one was there and it was easy and fell asleep pretty quickly. Another great day and we were happy to be in the woods and not in town. Later in the night I could hear the noise of the interstate and sighed...