Date: 2006-07-06
From: Rod Hollow Shelter

To: Blackburn Trail Center
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: overcast clouds

By LeftyToday was miserable. That's the only word I can use to describe it. The two highlights that were BIG highlights, were meeting Jim and Diane for lunch in Bluemont at the Horseshoe Curve Restaurant, and fining our way to the hostel shortly before pm that night. Today we hiked "The Roller Coaster". It was memorable to say the least. The trail brings you up and down 10 hills over 13 miles. It was hard! Mom and I were an hour late for our lunch date with J & D. They waited for us. It was great seeing them. Mom managed to slip and fall for her SIXTH time. This time she has bloody shins to prove it. [It will take us longer to get our pictures up now since we don't have a laptop, a van or easy access to hot spots.]After our lunch J & D dropped us off at the trailhead and wished us well. A few miles later we exited Virginia and entered our fifth state WEST VIRGINIA!It was a long 7 miles to the hostel, but very well worth it. Caretakers Redwing and Hopeful greated us with a soda and homade lasagne. We found comfortable places to sleep on the great screened in porch. Trailboss treated us to some beer. It was fabulous, everything about the place. I took a solar heated shower. I hung my tent out to dry. I couldn't believe it. Wet it weighed 3 pounds more then dry. I am embarrased to say how much my pack weighed at this far into the game-soI won't. But I did go through my pack and decide that a few things had to go. by RightyWe only had 10 miles to hike to get to the Horseshoe Curve Restraurant to meet Jim and Diane who were driving up from Richmond to have lunch with us. Lefty and I had calculated that 5 hours would be enough. BOY, were we wrong!! We had to hike over something called the "rollercoaster". I should know by now that when they bother to give sections a name that they will be awfull. This was really bad. It was 9 straight up and downs right in a row. Just very tiring with the heavy pack...and hard on the knees. I had gotten over almost all the peaks and was down in the valley getting ready to cross another stream. Most of the streams had little bridges across them; but this one did not. It was actually a fairly large stream, about 2 feet deep and lots of rocks. Well, I checked out the situation and decided rather than try to cross on litttle rocks that were just poking up out of the water and looked slippery, that I would cross over on some larger rocks that came up out of the water. I stepped onto the first rock and saw that the next one was about two feet away and about a foot lower. As I moved forward a little to try to place my poles, my feet slipped and I slid down the side of the rock I was on and into the rock I was headed for. My feet got caught between the rocks and I fell sideways and hit my head on a rock. My pack slid sideways and got lodged in the rocks too. I had a hard time pulling myself upright from that awkward position. I scraped all the skin off my shins and my head was pounding. For once, I didn't sit down and cry. I just picked myself up and continued on my way; bloody legs and all,hoping that I'd make it to the restuarant in time. I actually got there at 3PM just as Diane and Jim were about to give up on us. We had said we'd be there by 2pm at the latest. They had already eaten; but sat with us while we had lunch/dinner. The food was great. Thanks guys. We left there at about 5:45pm to hike 7 more miles to get to the Trail Center. We got in at 9pm. That's cutting it close for me cause I do not like to hike once it gets dark. The caretakers there, RedWing and Hopeful gave us a soda and left over lasagna and some peroxide for me to clean up my legs. Once all the blood was cleaned off, it wasn't as bad as it looked. We met Trail Boss, Two Step, Lumber and the Beast. We were able to sleep right on this beautiful wrap around porch and even had a view.