Date: 2003-04-24
From: Thomas Knob Shelter

To: VA16, Dickey Gap 
Miles today: 21.2

My first 20-miler!!! And I'm over the 500 mile mark too! Wow to both of them, especially the 500 miles. It seems unbelievable to me. Since I look at small chunks of the trail at a time, I forget how far I've gone since March 1st. To think all the way back to then is strange. It seems so long ago because I've seen so much since then, and yet the time seems to be cruising right along.The morning didn't seem as cold outside the shelter as I thought it would, judging by the chill inside. Of course, I didn't go outside until after 7am when I had to "go" and by that time the sun was up. There was no wind and that can make all the difference.I walked to the spring this morning, and while I was filling my bottle, two ponies came to the water and started drinking no more than 10 feet from me. That was pretty cool; cooler than the deer that stared at me as I walked from the shelter to there.Hotdog and I left the shelter before Sonic, Guana, Fly and Smoothie, but only because we were ready to go. They weren't far behind, I thought. I never saw them again today. All of us had talked about a "big" day today, so that tomorrow's hike to Partnership Shelter, and the pizza party, wouldn't be too bad. Partnership Shelter is 35.7 miles from Thomas Knob, so the more we could do today, the easier tomorrow will be. We all thought the terrain today looked favorable for longer miles. I just tried to keep up a good pace, and see where that got me by late in the day. Hotdog had already said he wasn't going to do another 18 today.We hiked over the tops of hills, covered in big boulders, including a narrow trail through Fatman Squeeze Tunnel. I'm not a fatman, but my pack did brush the rock sides. It was pretty cool though. There were wild ponies along the trail. I saw 4 or 5, not including the ones at the shelter this morning.I hiked over grassy balds too, and as always, enjoyed them. The grassy balds aren't a natural occurence around here, so the Park Service or Forest Service maintains their grassy appearance using controlled burns, mowing, or grazing by various animals. I still love them, even if they aren't natural.Hotdog and I kept leaving notes with the time we passed by at every shelter register and trail register so that the other four would have some idea of how far ahead we were. When we could see the trail far behind us, we looked for them, but never saw them. I sure hope they're still planning on pizza party at Partnership Shelter tomorrow. I know I am! It's almost all I've been able to think about the last few days.Hotdog and I reached the base of Hurricane Mountain/Iron Mountain around 3:30pm, and that was our one major climb for the day, and it was only 800' over 2 miles of trail. I was at the top and just started the downhill before 4:30, and Hotdog came along shortly after. We both knew there was about a 2 mile descent, followed by mostly level for about 4 miles. We also knew if we made it through that part, we'd have done our first 20-mile day. It seemed to take forever, going along sidehill trails for miles, and finally we came to a trail intersection where I knew our mileage for the day: 19.1. It was after 6pm, and we decided to cook dinner there, then move on and camp for the night. We were packed up, ready to take on the last 2 miles of the day at 7, and left a note on a sign for the others.According to the elevation profile, I knew there was a slight ascent to the road crossing where we hoped to camp. It started out a bit steeper than I thought it would, but we plugged along. I was feeling pretty good, with a full stomach, almost 20 miles, and the end near, when I heard "Oh! Ah!" from behind me. I turned around and saw Hotdog lying off the trail, parallel to it, on his back."Oh shit!" was my first thought, and I hurried back to see if he was okay. When I got close, he asked if I saw his glasses, so I stopped, looked around, and found them. They were bent. Then he asked if he were bleeding. He had a scrape above his left eye that was just beginning to bleed a little bit. He lay there for a few more seconds, then unfastened his pack and I helped him up. He'd apparently tripped and landed face-first on the trail, then rolled off of it. Lucky for him, there were a lot of rhododendrons and he didn't roll down the hill farther! He took a few minutes to recover, then cleaned and bandaged his would, and we continued on. Slower this time, especially when we were in the darkness of vegetative cover.We're camped near the intersection of two roads, but in a pretty nice area. It was great having dinner out of the way, so by the time darkness was taking over, we were ready to climb in our tents. There is some road noise, but I stll have my earplugs, so that should help out. I already heard a deer in the woods right next to me, and would imagine there are lots of critters nearby. As long as the bears don't get me, I'll be fine.Hotdog says his head feels okay, just sore where the scrape is. He's lucky that's his only injury, because there were some big rocks on the trail near where he fell. I'm glad he's okay too, and hopefully he still feels good tomorrow so he can enjoy pizza at the shelter!