Date: 2009-05-17
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Woodshole Hostle
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: light rain

Trail Words for the Day:         Bushwhack to hike where there is no marked trail. (OLC)        Mountain Money Toilet paperIII. Report for Today:         Part I. The fifth SD card with pictures is missing. I put in the mail from the Howard Johnson; and it didn¢t make it to Miss P & B. I am not upset over the cost of the card. I am upset for loosing the 600+ pictures I had on it.   I went on-line and filed a report with the postal service.         Part II. Saturday morning I went to Marsha¢s for breakfast and it was great. I opened my re-supply box and was very short on Mountain Money.         I left town and went uphill without looking at my map. I found a white blaze and was really excited that I managed without a map. Unfortunately, it wasn¢t a white blaze it was the bottom part of a white T with the T standing for horse corral. I retraced my tracks and went back to town to get directions from the locals. They told me I was off by two blocks. I started climbing again. This time I climbed 600¢ to find a ¢no trespassing¢ sign, ¢NO Trespassing, violators will be shot. Survivors with be shot again.¢ I retraced my steps for the second time today. This time I met a very nice couple. I didn¢t get names so I will use Bubba and Bubbet. They told me the trail was on the other side of town, threw me and my pack in the back of their pick-up and drove me over there and put me on the local ¢short cut¢ to the top of the mountain. I was on a old road. There was a fence on the left and I had to pass through the pig sty (a real pig sty).I came to a section where the road went down the fence line went up. I know I have to start on the top of the mountain. So, I decided to follow the fence line. I went another 500¢, came to a dead stop, no trail, no nothing. I have to get to the top so I started bushwhacking my way to the top. It was a hot humid day. My hair, clothes etc were ringing wet after an hour. I stopped to take a break. I remember Bubbet¢s last words to me, ¢Hun, you watch out for those snakes now.¢ The snakes are very thick up here. I called B2 to make sure someone knew where I was if I needed a search and rescue team to come get me. He knew this wasn¢t one of my better ideas. However, I didn¢t want to start all over which was his suggestion since I knew I only had about 500¢ to the top. Another 45 minutes and I found the trail. I looked up-hill, nothing. I looked down hill and say one of the more ¢beautiful white blazes¢ I have seen on the trail to date. I continued up hill and called B2 to let him know all was well and probably wouldn¢t need a search and rescue team after all. I passed through angels Rest and Doc;s Knob Shelter. I saw one hiker the entire day. It started raining around 4 pm. It was a ¢frog strangler¢ type of rain ¢ a frog could open his or her mouth and drown it was raining so hard.I arrived at Woods Hole Hostile where I spent the night. They had one of those solar showers that all of you saw toward the beginning of the trek. The host and hostess are Neville and Michael. They went to trail days in Damascus with two other hikers. It was a cold night in the bunk house. Zed, a Kiwi (New Zealander) had a 40* bag that really only went down to 60*. He discovered the tub full of blankets to supplement his sleeping bag. I didn¢t find them and froze that night. We had an outstanding breakfast of eggs, sausage, blue berry pancakes, coffee, and apple juice. It was my birthday and I had one candle on my plate. The owner is a registered masseuse and I treated myself to a foot massage. It was wonderful. I packed everything up and my feet didn¢t want to go back in the boot. I had to force them into the boots.   IV. Question of the Day: How old are you Tic?V. Person of the Day: Myself. I am 63 years young. Miss P & B for Tic