Date: 2016-06-30
From: Wilson Creek Shelter

To: Jennings Creek / Middle Creek campground
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: clear sky

8:00 am - Oh my god. Oatmeal with walnuts and wild blueberries and blackberries might just be the best food there is.The blackberries turn magenta in the heat and the juices give the oatmeal a soft violet color.It takes food that sometimes I just have to swallow and turns it into something to savor. Mmm. I must share this with Erica Wohldmann, who did the TEDxUCLA talk on foraging. I'm following her example in the small way I can - being mindful of what I take from nature and trying to give back where I can - giving water to trees, picking up trash I see and packing it out. I don't have enough hair to leave for bird nests though. :-)1:30 pm - Sitting next to a trash can somewhere along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I didn't stop for lunch and saw this trash can and thought it would be a good time to plop down, rest, and find any trash I have to deposit here.The weather today is just perfect - slightly overcast, cool, almost like fall. Much better than hiking in the heat. Thinking a lot about having kids. I think it's what happens when you see deer with adorable tiny fawns.8:15 pm - Middle Creek campground. Lying on my own picnic table, enjoying being clean (washed with my dish soap and dried with paper towels in the bathroom!), listening to a little creek and the music of the family car camping next door. Its actually nice. I miss music.While my and WonderBro's stuff is in the dryer, I walked up to the play equipment, hit the swing set, and am now sitting on a dock over a pond. It's pretty incredible and odd and lovely...I spent a chunk of today's hike picking berries and getting sunburned. You need three things to get a bowlful of berries:1) an eye for detail2) a willingness to go slow enough to see the berries3) a willingness to stop and pick them I have all three. And little did I know that I'd end up at a campground that serves milkshakes.Did I order a vanilla milkshake and cover it in berries? You're damn right I did!Kind of wish I was here for the 4th of July. I bet this place will be hoppin'!Earlier "Don't Stop Believing" started playing and I looked down at WonderBro's campsite and started headbanging. He saw me and laughed."You forget that it's not all hiking!" he called out. "People are having fun!"I know what he means. You can get too bogged down in the miles, walking, the routine. You need to shake things up, even out here.There's something called the Virginia Blues. A lot of people quit here. Maybe because Virginia is so hard and such a long state. And for the thru-hikers, their shoes seem to be giving out around here.Ooh! Lightning bugs under the bleachers! There's some old school Americana here...a summer resort. Cheap outdoors fun. We don't really have anything like this back home.WonderBro is 29. He told me he thinks he's part of the last generation to have the play-outside mentality, since Facebook and the Internet and things really took off when he was in high school.He mentioned playing outside...the way you knew where your friends were by the bikes outside.Made me think of my brother Sean.11:50 pm (almost actual midnight, not Hiker Midnight!) - WonderBro, who I briefly met at 4 Pines hostel, came into the shelter late last night. We were both aiming for this campground today, so we joined forces. A woman offered us a lift when we got off trail, which was fortuitous - we made it in time for bacon cheeseburgers and shakes!After setting up and showering, we went to the rec room for a rare treat - watching a movie! It was WonderBro's choice - The Heartbreak Kid. A Ben Stiller romcom. Didn't see that coming! Me, WonderBro, and Brokeback, of all people, watching a romcom together!