Date: 2010-06-09
From: Bolden Hollow

To: Blackburn AT Center
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: moderate rain

Torrential rain fell this morning. Pinned me down in my tent because I'm a wussy. Planned to get an early start to hike to Bears Den hostel to say goodbye to the group I've been hiking with. Stayed in the tent until 9:30am until there was a break in the storm. No warm food for breakfast because my Heine pot has developed a small leak. Cold oatmeal still works.Not really sure how I feel about crossing this mileage point today. 1,000 miles on these old feet of mine. I'm proud, but humbled by the beating I've taken. It doesn't feel like I've walked this far but my feet disagree. So many things are different than I expected. Mostly, things are easier that I had anticipated. I really expected the worst, so I'm definitely not disappointed. The part that I didn't foresee was how I'd feel about the people I get to know. The temporary feeling of getting to know people isn't there. I feel like we're friends for life. Fellow sufferers united in suffering. I still think it's the "Sumer Camp Syndrome". Not a day goes by that I don't think about Fun Dip and Spring Kat. Hoping they're having fun. Hoping the path is kind to their struggles.The Rollercoaster had me drooling with delight this morning! Finally a challenge! The sight of the trail shooting straight up a steep incline through knee high bolders made my legs work harder than my brain for a change! Finally! Finally my body gets the workout and not my mind. I can just go numb and be a hunk of flesh and bones struggling towards the top of a hill. Nice and simple. The inclines made me sweat, I'll admit. The wind was howling like the screams of kids at a theme park. The trail here has many elevation changes. Up then down. Down then up. No real reason, the trail could definitely be made easier, but for now I'm thankful! The trees rubbing together in the heavy breeze sounded like the creaking of the wheels and scaffolding of a wooden rollercoaster. There were more flat spaces than I had imagined though. Definitely would not impress if a real rollercoaster were to travel this terrain. It'd be bumpy though. Passed some section hikers by the powerlines. They were decked out in rain gear. Pants, jackets, gaiters, and pack covers. Must have been wetter on the inside of those clothes than on the outside. It wasn't even cold, just windy. Well, maybe it was a little cold, but you don't need a jacket. Their packs looked so heavy as I passed by them. Carrying what they feared most.Stood at the trail to the Sam Moore Shelter, I felt like pressing on without a break. The rain started up again so I headed for cover. Readyman and Kit were there. They apologized to me for getting upset the night before. I had nothing to do with the disturbance of their sleep, but I didn't feel obligated to explain it wasn't me who made all the noise. I didn't feel the need to explain myself. Guilty by implication is always an interesting topic of thought for me. It's fun to let people think wrongly about me, when I know I'm not the trespasser. Weirdo.The break in the rain allowed me to continue. Sooner than I thought, I was at the stone gates of Bears Den. Huge bolders and morter make up the composition of this "castle". The sign said, "Check in at 5pm" and my heart sunk. I had dreams of a Tombstones pizza! A coke! They wanted hikers to go around back. The door had a combination lock on it. They wanted me to add the mileage between Bears Den and some other point in my guidebook. I was about to say, "Forget it!" when Boundless opened the door for me. The owner allowed me to boil some water upstairs even though the kitchen wasn't open for another 3 hours. How nice! Finally some hot food! The kitchen was stocked with spices, coffee, 2 ovens, and enough cooking utensils for a cooking show. To bad I'm not staying.Ate some goodies out of the hiker box and I noticed that there were a pair of running shoes in the closet. I asked if anyone owned them, and nobody answered. The manager of the hostel told me to "Take um!" when I inquired. Yea! Woot! My crappy running shoes were going in the trash. I soaked every ounce of glue, fiber and rubber out of them! They're size 12 though. Wondered how I'd fare with a 1/2 size larger than necessary. Either way this was an amazing discovery! Now they're going on a hell of an adventure with their surrogate parent. Weirdo! Walking felt so much better with cushioning! Couldn't feel the rocks for a little while.I left Bears Den as Eddy was checking in for the night. Walking felt so much better. I could feel my pace increase because I didn't suffer from the bumps as badly. My pace has definitely slown down since Waynesboro because of those old beat down shoes I was wearing. I flew up the trail over rocks that I couldn't even feel. I kept expecting the difficulty of this area to become worse, but I never felt that tired. Definitely different than most of Virginia but nothing significant.Crossing the West Virginia border felt surreal. That sign held so much meaning to me. I wanted to hug it, but all I could do was stand there, breathlessly, blankly considering the last 540+ miles. The BIGGEST state down for the count! Had to mark the ocassion by peeing in VA one last time! Goodbye baby! Virginia was for lovers! I love you VA!!Didn't really understand the meaning of the "Devils Racecourse". I hardly even noticed the rocky river bed. Nothing that noticably difficult either. Passed Trog with his gigantic gaiters and his short-short-short shorts. They're the kind of gaiters you'd wear if you were walking through knee high powdered snow. Antartica would be a good place for those things.The trail to Blackburn Center is not 0.2 miles and it's ALL straight down. Slippery stone steps with no handrails welcome you to the centers wrap-around screened in front porch. I scared the crap out of Brian, the caretaker, as he was making a batch of brownies. I'm just in time for speghetti dinner! Every Wednesday night, it's a pasta buffet! Free! Wow, what a stroke of luck! Ate ourselves silly with Brooklyn, Landfill, Cheese, Stitch, Michigan, Cricket, BooBoo, and Captain Slick. Listened to tunes as we talked about Michigan meeting his girlfriend here. BooBoo is going to DC. Cricket is almost convienced to go to DC also. Not sure what I'm going to do. Probably zero here tomorrow and read "Ishmael". Maybe I'll hike to Harpers Ferry on friday to meet Angela. She's bringing me a replacement pot from Lish hopefully.