Date: 2007-04-16
From: Jenkins or Jennings Shelter, Va

To: Jenny's Knob Shelter, Va
Miles today: 23.5
Weather: broken clouds

We woke up at daylight and were hiking at 8am and at the dirt road 4.6 miles away in 1 hour and 40 minutes. It was a big climb over the 5th Brushy Mtn we have seen in the last day or so. Then we were down at the gap. Two guys hopped out of 2 vehicles and asked us if we were hungry. We said, "oh, yea". He said they had 6 women just waiting to wait on us. I drove in one truck and Mo in the other. It was a beautiful drive to The Round Mountain United Methodist Church. There were several farmers that waved at us. We washed our hands outside because the 100 year old church had no running water. We went in the basement and sat down to one of the most inspiring meals of my life. There is something about the spontaneous kindness and witnessing we received. The pastor, Alan, played old bluegrass gospel tunes with "peaceful weary stranger" or something close to that. Sally told the story of "Evanessus". Some boy whose grandmother gives him all sort of chores that he fails at. I could not repeat the story in print as it would not have the grandmotherly theatrics and facial/body language that made it a captivating 10 minutes. They even gave us postcards that we filled out; addressed; and they would put in the mail for us. It was an emotional moment. Mo mentioned later that he was caught off guard with a well up of emotions associated with sudden, not often thought of moments about his grandparents; as he wrote a letter to them. I wanted to join this community. I was raised United Methodist and this church group made you want to be apart of their community. They invited me back in October to help them make pear butter. I ate quit a bit of that pear butter during the meal. It was funny: each lady had a chore or food item that the presented you with that they would continually bring to you, until you said stop. When I first sat down; one at a time they would say, "would you like.....coffee, yes, orange juice, yes, etc, etc. Providing sustenance to a traveller is such a strong ministry. These people do the best mission work that I have ever seen. They let those to be witnessed to come to them. Randomly and surprisingly; each Monday; they feed any hiker coming through. There is so much biblicly about feeding the masses; gaining sustenance for ever-lasting life; not to worry as god even takes care of the sparrows; etc. With a great bit of difficulty; I told Alan that we needed to get back to the trail as we wanted to do about 20 more miles today. I was 11:10 am. We gat about an hour and a half of fellowship that would do us good into Pearisburg. They dropped us off and we went w/o stopping up to "The Trail Boss". It is a camp for trail maintainers in the area. OK, it has been a great morning; but, the wind is a consistent 30 mph with gusts up to 60 mph, according to the locals. The snow was actually up to our knees in places. It did stop snowing, though. The sun came out; but the 6-7 miles down to I-77 were brutal. We just kept plugging away being uplifted by our experience. The wind was so strong when we crossed over I-77 that the wind from behind; going downhill; at a 3.5 mph gait; was picking me up and then dropping me. It actually pulled at my right hamstring so much that it gave me a slight injury. Im a thru-hiker; so, I kept walking hard through it.(or as we say on the trail,"ah, dont worry about, he's a hockey player.") We ate a big meal at Kimberling Creek; right before the climb to The Helvey Mill Shelter. I changed socks for the first of 3 times this day. We were still a little full from our breakfeast and made good miles through sunshine in the late afternoon on the fairly level ridge walking to Jenny's Knob Shelter. The snow was melting; so, I just "sold out" and walked right down a virtual creek in the middle of the trail to make miles. My feet were sopping wet. We found a fairly dry; windless; sunny spot to dry our clothes and gear. Everything we owned were wet or damp. This hour of drying clothes made my life alot easier when I went to bed dry. We did get to Jenny's Knob with me teasing Mo, saying "Wa Wa Petey; Wap a tee; Wa Petey." I was basically fliting with the idea of goin to the Wapiti(the name of the Eastern Elk which is now extinct in the area) Shelter 14 miles away. We had been chanting "Wa Petey" for a day now. We were ready for bed though and were quickly asleep saying,"we would wake up with the birds".