Date: 2009-06-25
From: Cornelius Creek Shelter

To: Glasgow, VA
Miles today: 19.9
Weather: scattered clouds

6/25 Man am I glad that I didn¢t sleep in the shelter last night. Someone was snoring beyond belief. Some folks also woke up just before 5 am, which turned out to be very disturbing as they didn¢t keep quiet. They just continued to go through their stuff and talk in loud voices, without having any awareness that others were trying to sleep. I slept through most of it, thankfully, but the others in the shelter weren¢t too lucky. I talked a bit more to Chinese Tourist and Peter, who I had met last night. Chinese Tourist is into green construction in Charlotte and Peter lives in Iowa with his wife, who recently got off the trail due to a bout with giardia. Early in the morning, I hit ¢The Guillotine¢ a rock face that is supposed to resemble the French guillotine used to chop off heads of the guilty. This one is a huge boulder that is stuck in-between two other rock faces and looks as if it is going to fall at any second. After I saw Peter and Chinese Tourist again, I didn¢t see anyone else for the rest of the day. Times have been changing and it really does feel as if I am behind all of my close buds. Everyone is ahead of me. It is a bit discouraging and I may have to alter my plans (i.e. skip a section in PA and come back and hike it later on in the season) in order to catch up. We shall see. Today I also experienced some of the worst butt-chafing on the trek. I¢ve been sweating so much more now in the hot weather and, although I have baby-powdered it up, it is still VERY painful. I went hungry for much of the day, as I wanted to make good time and make sure that I would get a hitch on in to Glasgow in time. I mostly ate some not-so-tasty Slim-Fast bars that were loaded with protein to keep me going. At Matts Creek Shelter, my feet were hurting so bad that I knew that I had to take my shoes off. I had already done about 18 miles and my feet were just killing me. While at the shelter, I met Baloo, who was from Rock Hill, South Carolina, right over the border from Charlotte. He is a college graduate from Clemson University, but told me that he has kind of been screwing off over the past several years. He has been bumming it in Asheville, getting odd jobs here and there, and is planning a move to Portland, Oregon after he gets his feet back on the ground. He was a friendly chap and I wish him well. I then came all the way down to the James River Foot Bridge, which is the longest foot-use-only bridge on the AT. It was kind of cool walking across this huge structure, right along the James. The James River flows all the way down to Richmond, VA and I know this because at the University of Richmond, we used to go on out and jump in the river on a hot spring day. This time, the river was slow-moving and completely swollen from all of the rain. There were three young folks who were jumping off the bridge and into the water, drinking some beer as well. Just adjacent to this bridge was a huge locomotive bridge and, as one large train rolled past, I just stood there and watched it barrel over the river. It made quite a lot of noise. I was fortunate enough to get a hitch into Glasgow within 25 minutes by a man from West Virginia named Landon. He explained that he had a place in Glasgow for during the week and back home in West Virginia over the weekend. He worked as a welder at the local mill and he explained that he could make 3 x the amount of money in VA as in West Virginia. But, he loved his home state so much that he wanted to stay back in West Virginia over the weekends. He dropped me off at the post office in Glasgow, where I was able to pick up my mail drop from my Aunt Kathy. It had everything in it that I had asked for: denatured alcohol, baby powder, she had taken items out that I did not need, and a wonderful photo of Kathy, me, and my cousins, Katie and Alex. I also received a wonderful card from Bev again! It was totally unexpected and I was just gleaming before even opening it. It was the thought that she took the time to send me something that really mattered. Inside, it was a card similar to the last one with more updates. She will be heading off to Paris in the fall, taking a nutrition class over the summer, and she strongly recommended that I google: Human Tetris, Mario RC Car, and Shii. She is what one might call a ¢Reedy¢. Thanks so much, Bev!!!After leaving the PO, I headed down the street to the town¢s library. I only had 15 minutes and I wanted to quickly check my mail and the news. When I opened up CNN.com, I couldn¢t believe what I saw: Michael Jackson had died! I literally almost crapped my pants right there. I always enjoyed his music and watching him dance. My roommate from Richmond and best bud from South Africa, Paul Kelly, used to jam to all of his Jackson 5 tunes in our dorm room back in the day. RIP MJ.   I was a bit hungry and thirsty (and in need for some calcium) so I headed to the local grocery store for some milk and fresh (somewhat) fruit. Adjacent to the grocery store was this huge ceramic Nessie creature that was completely out of place. It was just plopped right down in a small grass field and I¢m guessing that it is used to attract some attention from tourists who see the connection of Glasgow, VA to Loch Ness, Scotland. It was hilarious to see and, in pure tourist fashion, I headed over and took a few pics. I then headed to the pavilion to cook some food. I had been on my own for several days now, but I didn¢t mind the solitude. There were two young girls and a young boy already at the pavilion and the young boy was shouting obscenities and listening to rap music. He kept asking me about the trail and where I would sleep out there. When I told him that I had been hiking since Georgia, he almost fell off his seat. He exclaimed, ¢Dude, if you have a car, why don¢t you just drive to Maine. Why walk?¢ He was a reckless little bugger, and I did my best to throw every crazy question back on him. After returning to the pavilion, back from Dollar General, I noticed that a dog nearby the pavilion was eating something. As I approached, I noticed that it was my Slim-Fast protein bars that I had purchased at Big Lots. He was devouring them! I actually think that he did me a favour, because these bars were really starting to become disgusting. Thanks dog. When I left the pavilion, it was already getting a bit late. I needed a place to camp for the night and, as I was walking out of town, I noticed some train tracks off to the right. I walked about .25 miles down the way and set up camp. I knew that it wasn¢t going to rain that evening, so I didn¢t have to set up my tent ¢ only my sleeping pad and my sleeping bag. It was completely out of a movie, sleeping merely a few feet away from the train tracks on top of small filler rocks. I figured that Glasgow was a small town and that, if a train passed through, it would pass through during the day ¢ not in the evening. I was exhausted, so I curled on up and fell fast asleep.