Date: 2017-08-18
From: Blackburn trail center 

To: Bears den hostel 
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I got up a couple times during the night. Sleeping on the porch was rolls of the comfortable and the rain that fell outside did not disturb any of us on the porch. The forest was quite loud with the sound of insects. These were sick a test and other such large bugs. Ireland said that it one point during the night he had heard it rattle coming from under the boards of the porch being answered by a similar rattle coming from somewhere in the forest. He said he knew this couldn't be a rattlesnake but couldn't figure out what it was. Cuckoo evidently had not heard the same thing. She had heard some other kind of animal in the morning making a "cooing" sound. I think I heard the same thing but neither of us could figure out what that was. Probably some kind of bird I guess. I got up around 3 a.m. to go to the bathroom and I had a glass of the lemonade that the caretaker had left at the trail Center for us. I also stretched. I was muscular lease or from yesterday's hike despite the relative ease of it. I actually got up around 5:30 a.m. when I heard Ireland and cuckoo discussing the sound of the rattle. I sit on the porch steps for a while and watched the sunrise. The sky was partly cloudy and the Sun itself was not directly in view because of the trees but there was a little color as the Sun came up.I went through morning routine and a breakfast my one modification of the routine today was that I mixed instant coffee packets in Coldwater in my 20 ounce water bottle and drink it that way instead of just pouring the dried grounds into my mouth and swallowing them with sips of water. It was much better this way. I told cuckoo that this was in parked do to her reaction when I had described the dry coffee grounds message yesterday and that today I felt like an evolved Pokemon.The three of us discussed various options for destinations today ranging from an 8 mile hike to the Bears den hospital. I shared that this was one of jag Happy's recommended stopping spots. Ireland also said that that was probably as far as he wanted to go today cuckoo sounded interested but wasn't sure and I was someone inclined to think about trying to reach maybe as far as the rod hollow shelter 18 miles south. In between those objectives was another shelter and a few camp sites. I what is the first to start hiking this morning and I actually left the trail Center building about 7:30. However it took me a while to find the right path on the blue trail back to the Appalachian Trail so it was actually around 8 a.m. when I was actually walking on the Appalachian Trail itself. I had itself at a slow pace trying to ease into myself bound hike.At the Blackburn trail Center there head been posters warning of the lime disease threat. I noticed that unlike in New York New Jersey and New England where the primary threats head been from dear ticks, here the posters said it was the black leg tick that we needed to be concerned about. I thought about this as I was walking South trying to stay in the center of the trail as the posters head advised and I noticed that there was a sizable grassy margin on both sides of the trail as it past between the trees and the other wise leaf covered Forest floor. This would probably be good tick Habitat, and I decided that I would put on some insight repellent at my next stop. At 9 o'clock when I took a brief water break I did that.At the trail Center I head also weighed my backpack. It was 36 pounds with a3 day supply food and one liter of water which means that yesterday when I left her purse very it would have been probably 3 pounds heavier. At 3940 pounds its too much. I knew that this was in part do to my choice to carry a second pair of foot care. And bottom of my pack and I had a pair of a6 rugged running shoes that I was comfortable wearing. This was in case my new trail runners didn't work out or failed to soon. So that was a couple of pounds of the way right there I also knew that my choice to continue to carry to external spare recharging batteries for my phone was another Factor that was in part responsible.I had also added a couple rolls of medical and antiblister tape to my first aide ziplock bag. And I had purchased a new lightweight windbreaker. also I had added a tube of sunscreen that I had previously cut from my packing list. In any case, i recognized that I would need to revisit some of these choices in the near future in order to lighten my load.Sometime around 9:30 I reached the northern edge of the section of the AT known as the roller coaster. I took a photo of the sign indicating this. About 10 o'clock I reached the Raven Rocks viewpoint which was a cliff overlooking would've Valley with a nice view of a nearby town off to the west. Picture.Sometime after 11:30 I came to a Road intersection where the trail crossed both have to lane road and it for lane road. The two lane road is evidently called Pine Grove Road and the four lane was label Harry Byrd Highway. As I got to the other side of this which was also labeled route 7 I saw a hike her who was in his 30 is coming up behind me and I waited for him. He was the same guy I had just passed about 10 minutes earlier north of the intersection. At that point he had said that he was waiting for a friend he was hiking with to catch up. Evidently now he was going back and he said he was going to try to find her. As we headed up to the trail on the south side of Route 7 it came to a trail intersection whereas I'd pass went down to a parking lot and he said he was going that way to look for her. However he also said that he thought she had continued up where I was headed to the Bears den hospital. So he went left and I continued straight and upward. About 10 minutes later I passed a young woman going the other direction and I asked her if she was hiking with a guy in a white t-shirt and she said yes and I explained where he had gone and that he was trying to link up with her. She said thank you and with half a smile said that she was really in a foul mood. Evidently there have been some miscommunication between the two of them and it looked like a lot of extra hiking was happening as a consequence. I should well I hope you're have a nice day anyway and she left a little and said yet thanks you too as we parted ways. I continued up the hill southbound.Just past noon, I arrived at the bears den hostel. The hiker room was locked and the front door had a sign that said "closed -- open at 5pm" when I called, a lady explained that there were instructions on the back door. I looked and saw "to open the door, use an AT guide book. The code is the number of miles between route 55 Manassas gap, amd the bears den hostel.  Enter three three- digit number." Evidently my guide book wad okc by 0.1 mile, but when she saw me trying with a number that was close, she leaned out a window amd have me the right #.I changed and dried my sweaty stuff on the clothes line. Then I had lunch. I did not intend to stop here for the day, but because we jag talked about it this morning, I felt I should tell Ireland and cuckoo before moving on. I also checked weather sand my radar app showed a front coming in -- possible thunderstorms. At 2pm neither of them had showed up, so i started hiking south again. I goy about a half mile, then I changed my mind and went back.  Ireland was there, but out seemed cuckoo had moved on. I decided to stay. I took a shower and relaxed.