Date: 2016-04-24
From: Rice Field Shelter

To: Wind Rock Camp Site
Miles today: 20.4
Weather: clear sky

I woke up early and broke camp. Pam and Cathy said they were planning to head out between 7 and 8 and I was hoping to be ready to go when they head out. They had a plan to get to Troutville by Thursday and I was hoping to get to Daleville a couple miles before Troutville. That would make about 100 miles covered in 6 days which would be a nice week for me. The trail wasn't too challenging as far as ups and downs but the trail was full of a lot of rocks and was a pounding on my feet. There was also a long stretch without water and with the weather being much warmer / hot out carrying plenty of water was difficult. I kept praying for a trail angel with some water at each road crossing and forest service road that seemed to have reasonable access but unfortunately there were none. As the day was winding down we reached Wind Rock area with only about a liter of water each. I was really REALLY thirsty and knew 1 liter wasn't going to be enough considering the next water source would be about 5 miles away. We looked around and debated moving on the the next shelter that night or just calling it a day and camping there. The call it a day and camp there option won out. Fortunately the Camp there won out as just after I had set up my tent I noticed a bunch of "day hikers" coming up the trail from the road less than a mile away. One of the guys was carrying a 12 pack of Bud light lime (which I would never think about trying off the trail!!!) I called out to them if they were coming up to just watch the sunset and they said they were. Then I asked if they needed a hand carrying the beverages up and they just laughed...   Then a few more came up the trail carrying various bags and things. Wind Rock was a great spot to watch the sunset so a little while later I went up to watch the sunset and see if I could in "Subman's words... Yogi some beverages!" When I got up there one of the women asked me if I wanted a beer... which of course I did since I was really really thirsty! Honestly I would have been just as happy with a bottle of water! After accepting the beer the woman said they had plenty and to invite my friends up if they wanted to come. The group of day hikers ended up being Vet students from VT and were all really cool! We talked about hiking and thru hiking experiences and thanked them repeatedly for their generosity. In addition to the beer they did have plenty of water and I was able to fill up all of my bottles and get enough to fill up Pam and Cathy's water bottles... which was a huge stress relief. After watching the sunset scuba built a nice fire and I roasted my marshmallows I had hiked in from Pearisburg. There are a lot of vegans on the trail and I did not know that marshmallows had "animal" products in them... go figure... so I ended up being the only one to eat them which was fine by me! The "leavers" were there also and we had an interesting philosophical discussion on global warming/climate change and other things. It was interesting to hear the "leavers" say the climate change issue was "settled science" and talk about not contributing to global warming by not supporting the cattle industry and being vegans so they didn't contribute to the "methane" from farming etc... etc... etc... They are filming for a "documentary" and I pointed out that all their electronics and cameras, cellphones and light weight synthetic camping gear are made in china where the labor force is exploited for low wages, the heavy metal contamination of the electronics industry pollutes china's lands and waters, and that china has no "environmental" controls so their electronics and camping gear are contributing to the climate change and exploitation of the Chinese workers... to which they said they knew and were struggling with that... I asked them if it were possible to provide things people wanted (meat) without causing the negative effects.. and they were remarkably against that being a possibility. So I found that inflexibility very enlightening... I'd be fine eating steaks that were produced in the best way that was the least damaging to the environment/ecosystem...   I take the side of the American Indians... that would hunt the buffaloes and use every part... without wasting anything...