Date: 2004-05-12
From: Va. 612, Kimberling Creek

To: Va. 615,Laurel Creek
Miles today: 8.7
Weather: scattered clouds

Today is Wednesday May 12th. We spent the night at the Big Walker Mountain Hotel. It's so convenient and nice enough, that we're going to stay 2 nights . Got up at 7 a.m. and went across the street, bought milk, had cereal in the car, at the Virginia 615 trailhead. Drove around to the other trail head on Virginia 612. And got on the trail at 8:45 a.m. For the first mile that's basically road walking and crossing over the interstate-77. Then you get over to some gravel road called Wyrick Trail. A hiker there, Pastor, said there were empty water jugs on down the trail, but we weren't looking for a water anyway. We finally walked off the gravel to the real trail, and it's been a nice trail mostly on old logging roads. And except for one bit, that went up a lot, it's been pretty level. And we're making good time. One thing we noticed is the high humidity, even though it's only 55 degrees, your sweat will not dry off your body. Well it may be in the mid-sixties now, and clouds are building, so we're trying to keep moving. We think we only have about 4 miles to go after stopping for a big break at 10:25 a.m. At 10:50 we left our break area and continued hiking. The trail continues to be nice. We go by a trail going off called The Trail Boss Trail. And then we started running into the thru-hikers. Homeboy was a mid sixties age through hiker. He's been retired five years, but this year his wife is busy visiting people all summer, so he's hiking. His trail name is based on what his wife says to him ¢Home boy¢. Basically he didn't know where he was on the trail. He thought there was a shelter nearby and there's not. He's doing 23 miles today, and he talked mostly about the other hikers we'd be seeing going down the trail. We met Tree Frog next, he was very friendly, from Houston Texas, and he loved talking about hiking and sandals, just How great they were. He also talked about a malady hikers have, with a nerve being pinched between your toes, something that Cindy experiences , Morton's nervosa. He said a simple surgery is the solution. Then we met a couple Chris and Ellie, from the upper peninsula Of Michigan, with no trail names yet. Kind of surprising. No not really. We are still just Terry and Cindy from Illinois. Homeboy had told us he started April 1st, which means he's moving really well. We got back to the car at 12:55 p.m. People had told us about the trail magic at the end of the road. there was a giant cooler just full of juices and drinks and ice, for the hikers. Terry had an OJ and we drove back to get the other car. As we drove to the other car we did see Homeboy come out of the woods to cross the road, and he was looking around for a blaze. He found one and he never even saw us drive by. We got back to the hotel, had some showers, had some fun, relax for awhile. It was only about 2 p.m. We got up and drove into town. Bought some chips and beer at a little grocery store. Came back to the room, called Cindy's dad then we decided to drive the scenic hwy 52 over to Wytheville, over big Walker Mountain. We stopped at the tower on Big Walker Mountain, read about the Civil War, didn't go up the tower since it cost money. We drove into Wytheville and drove around, and we decided to eat there since there was so much more selection. So we finally chose Shoney's and pigged out as usual. Then went to Kmart and bought some foot gel products, Orthotics. Then we drove back to the hotel through the mile-long tunnel. And sat out on the viewing chairs at the Big Walker hotel for 30 minutes before bedtime.