Date: 2005-05-26
From: James River 

To: Little Irish Creek
Miles today: 14.9

I didn't sleep very well last night. My knee was hurting like crazy. I woke up early regardless and walked up to the store. They were already p[en at 7:30. They had opened up especially for us. They normally don't open until 7:30 but, knowing that we wanted to get out, they opened earlier.Very friendly people run the Wildwood Campground and hang out there. They have been treating us like special guests. I guess we must be because it doesn't seem like al0ot of through hikers drop in here. Ours were the only maildrops here and they just seem to treat us as if we were unusual people to stop in there. At any rate, I got to the store and they were fixing breakfast for us. I had a couple of sausage, egg and cheese buscuits and a milkshake. I also picked up some candy bars for later.Ken Smith is a gentleman who spends his summers here shuttling hikers back and forth. He's got a pop-up camper in the campground. He gave us a ride back to the Trail. He's a very nice guy- he has section hiked from Georgia to New York. He was giving us a ride within 5 miles of the Trail. We offered to give him money for gas but he refused. He also mailed off some stuff for us. OC1 had a box he wanted to send home and I had 3 postcards and memory chips to mail to Eddie to get some new music.We got back to the Trail at 9:00 and I was particularly slow. There are 2 basic truths about going into town on the AT:1. You always leave UPHILL.2. You and your pack are always 10 lbs heavier.You learn to fear the word GAP, because if you're going down into a gap, you know you'll be going uphill again. The uphill today was actually pretty pleasant, as pleasant as walking up 2,700 vertical feet with a 30 lb pack on can be. The way it works out is, it's relatively pleasant. It would probably kill most people. It would kill people who weren't in shape, having to walk some of the crappiest territories in the U.S.Alot of nice views today, including one from the top of Bluff Mountain at 3,400 feet -very picturesque. When I got up there, B Money and OC1 were sitting on the concrete bases of what used to be an antenna tower and having lunch. I elected not to stop and basically walked all day, eating candy bars and life savers. I was pretty full from breakfast and dinner the night before and was in good shape. Easy Goer actually hung back and was last in line in terms of walking today because he had to re-rinse his water bladder. I gave him some calcium hydrochloride concentrated bleach. His water tube had turned all nasty looking and black and he was trying to rinse it out and the taste was staying in there. I just kept walking and bypassed the shelters and got to US Road 39. There was a really cool wooden foot bridge I walked across. There were some section hikers there that I sat and talked to for about an hour. They are from California and used to hiking the Pacific Coast Trail. The idea of going into towns and eating is a total alien thing to them.I forgot to mention that yesterday, I walked across the James River Foot Bridge. It's the longest foot-use-only bridge on the AT.Today I got in at about 3:10, which is pretty early. OC1 walked in a short time after. It was hot as hell. We sat under the bridge and went ahead and cooked dinner while waiting for Easy Goer to catch up. He knew where we were going to camp, because we were going to camp at a site. It was very buggy. The air is just filled with bugs. You can see them everywhere, bumble bees, tiny, nasty wasps, butterflies, gnats and flies everywhere. I put on my buzz Off stuff to sit there. They were annoying the crap out of me!Bug season has definitely started and we are going to have to find better places to camp now. On higher ground where it's a little windy and cooler and away from water.Right now, we are next to a creek and of course the bugs are just everywhere. It just turned dark and I have my headlight on and the 'no see um' mesh on my tent is just covered with bugs trying to get at me.After we ate, we worked on Easy Goer's tent, to set it up. He had gotten some new cord to help create more tension on his tent. His tent is nylon, and sometimes it stretches when it gets wet or damp. So we helped him out with that.I got back to my tent before dark and worked on my New Balance 806's. They are starting to break down. The hard plastic around the heel is starting to come through, I can feel it through the shoe. I'm starting to develop some pretty large callouses around my heels. I used some blister patches and duct tape to pad that area somewhat. It's a temporary fix; hopefully in Waynesboro, another 40 or so miles, I'll have remembered to throw another pair of shoes in there. If not, I may have to pick up another pair even if it's just for 40 or 50 miles. These are getting pretty hard to walk in.Last night I called Draft Runner from Wildwood Campground and told her that I probably would be pulling out of the woods at Reeds Gap, where she lives, sometime Saturday. By the way the guys are feeling, and from the milage we made today, only 15 miles, it doesn't look like we will make it by Saturday. I'll have to call her again and let her know it will probably be more like Sunday morning. It looks like the best course of action is to try to make it to the Maupin Shelter, which is just a few miles from Reeds Gap, on Saturday night and camp out there. We will try to get to Reeds Gap first thing Sunday morning and she can pick us up from there. She says she is at our disposal to do laundry, shopping, showers, food. So, I think the first thing is to try to hit the Rockfish Gap outfitters' whenever they open. OC1 had a pretty good fall yesterday and snapped his pole in half, it's rigged up now temporarily, but he needs a new set of treking poles. Hopefully, I can get some online access and get these journals in, it's been a month. I have been unable to get a computer to upload this stuff. I hope Draft Runner's computer has the capacity of burning a CD off of my recorder. It's almost 9:30 now, I think I'm going to try to get to sleep early and wake up at about 5:30. I called Mark and Jan to see what the story is, if Mark will be joining me for a few days. If he is, what I'm going to end up having to do is start running big miles to get ahead of OC1 and Easy Goer. If and when Mark comes out, I'll have to go alot slower, he's not capable of doing 20's at this point. I may pull a few 30 mile days and get some milage ahead of the guys so that I don't fall behind.