Date: 2017-08-31
From: Hog Camp

To: John's Hollow shelter
Miles today: 26.5
Weather: overcast clouds

The rain didn't last that long last night but it remains humid all night. I got up about 4:30 a.m. because I had already had lots of sleep and couldn't sleep anymore. It was dark so I got dressed and began packing up by red light headlamp. I was is quiet as possible so is to try not to disturb the other campers. I thought it would take longer, but I was completely packed by 5:30 a.m. so I put on my pack and I did something I have not done before. I hiked by headlamp in the morning. The foliage on and around the trail was damp with rain and dew. Voodoo sparkle almost white like frost in the light of my headlamp. I took a picture.I headed south and buy a fence near a gravel road I found that a trail angel had left to to gallon containers of water. I was carrying one and a half leaders and an empty bottle so I filled my empty bottle from the trail angels supply. I then headed south and the trail begin to climb Mount Cole. About 545 I reached a clearing and noticed that the light from the Sun was beginning to be a parent in that eastern sky. Picture. I kept hiking and came to another clearing and the red highlights from the sunrise were quite clear now although the sky remained dark and I could see several stores and a very bright planet directly above the eastern horizon. Picture. Hi kept taking and I came to yet another clearing that passed over a shoulder of Mount Cole and up its Eastern side. I took several more pictures from various places along the path during this climb. As I continue to hike the day became brighter and I put my headlamp away. As I began to descend the Western side of the mountain I took a few more pictures from you point so long the way.Shortly after 7 I passed the cow camp gap and 8.5 mile side trail to the cow camp shelter. I decided not to go there and continued hiking. Around 730 I came to the top of bald Knob. As I Verizon my guide book this peak was not in fact bald. However I did have a nice view to the north north east and I took a picture. I also took a break here to eat breakfast. I had instant oatmeal, to of the packets the Joey had left me, and instant coffee, both prepared with a jet boil stove that Joey had brought me. Between the rest from hiking and the nourishment of the breakfast I felt ready to start my day. & I was already about 4 miles into it.I don't remember what time it was that I started hiking after breakfast, but I arrived at route 60 and the long Mountain wayside at right about 9 a.m. According to a sign posted near the trailhead the priest shelter was 20 miles north of here. This is where Joey and I would have hiked if we had started together at the reeds gap trailhead. I took a picture and then I continued hiking south.At 9:30 I pass the small sign that provided information about a community of freed slaves who had in Habitat the land just south of where I was as share croppers. The landlord was a Mr Taft Hughes and the sign explains that the tenants paid 1/4 of their crop in rent unless they did not own there own team, of plowing animals such as horses or oxen suppose, in which case you paid half of your crop in rent. Apparently many of them group corn and paid 1/8 of their corn in payment for getting it ground at the grist mill in the community owned by a Mr Joe Davis. Apparently the community this banded in the early 1920 is when they sold their land to the US Forest Service.I reached the brown Mountain shelter just before ten a.m. and stop for a break and a snack. I spent quite a while reading through the log book after I signed it myself. I found entries from Kansas, stamps, and silver girl, each of whom had passed me during their northbound hike going 25 to 30 miles a day. In fact the entry from silver girl is the one in which she documents her conversion from her previous trail name of little Zoe. Evidently the past couple of days had been hard for her and as a positivity boost she looked to Paul Simon and was inspired by the song bridge over troubled water and decided to be his silver girl.Her entry was dated the 27th of March, and it was basically the same story she told me when I met her in Southern New York State in late April. I also found an entry from Flickr dated the 29th of March, but this was not the same Flickr I had known. This one was a KA echo and appeared to be southbound. Then I noticed and entry from December 10th 2016 signed by Gandalf and Flickr. This one said cold start to the morning hike! 16 degrees at 10:30 a.m.! Reached 800 miles today! This very likely was the same hikers I had met in April in Southern Pennsylvania and hike with for over three weeks. Pictures.I stopped to get water at the nearby brown Mountain Creek. Rachel passed me while I was treating my water. We said hello and talked about the sunrise, then she hiked on. After finishing with my water, I got back on the trail around 10:25 a.m.About 11:15 a.m., I caught up with Rachel again as she was taking a break beside the creek. We talked about our contingency plan for the weather. Several people had said and my weather app seemed to confirm that it would be a decent day today but that tomorrow, Friday the 1st , would be very rainy with a possibility of thunderstorms. Rachel also told me that this summer she had worked for the PATC and that her boss there had warned her that there was a 30 mile section of the Appalachian Trail coming up in which there would be no water. Rachel referred to her notes and guide book and told me that this was from something Meadow, at mile 718.7 until mile 694.5, but there may be a way to hitch at 702.4 (VA 624) where there is a gas station that may have water.As I continued South, around 1130, the trail went up to the left and began to skirt a large reservoir. In most places although I could see the water through the trees there was no clear view. I did find one vantage point from which I took a picture of the water through the trees and the buildings on the other side. At around noon I heard the sound of a telephone ringing in the middle of the woods. I looked but could not determine where it was coming from, and I continued hiking.Sometime shortly after noon the trail crossed a suspension bridge, over the river feeding the reservoir. It then came to the road which I recognized as the marker indicating bed most if not all of the rest of the days hike would be up hill. My current elevation was roughly 1000 feet, and the punch bowl shelter, which was 4.5 miles ahead, was at roughly 2500 feet. If I were to try to go further and reach the Johns hallow shelter, I would have to cross Bluff Mountain at something over 3300 feet. I would also have to hike in additional 9 miles. Please options were on my mind because of the weather situation mentioned above. I hoped to get as close to Glasgow as possible today, so that I could reduce the mileage I would have to walk tomorrow in bad weather to reach the town where I intended to stay at a hostel and shower, and do laundry, and resupply.Sometime around 1230, I saw blaze, hiker I had not seen since the paul wolfe shelter. Julie and I had seen him there and that was the second meeting for me because I had met him seriously at some point in the Shenandoah. After a brief chat, we both continued up the hill. Blaze had zero'd at the Paul wolfe shelter. So I could not understand how he was now in front of me. Either he had hiked 3 days at more than 20 miles each, or he had gotten off the trail and skipped a section. He now said he was going to the punch bowl shelter, so I made a note to ask him about this when we were both there. Shortly after that I'm at a third group of students from Washington and Lee college on their orientation hike. They were coming down the hill so they made way and allowed me to hike past them, and after some pleasantries a continued up the hill.Add about 1 p.m. I reached the peak of rice Mountain. And then after a short decent started back uphill again. I then Crossed another Intermediate peak and then went down to a blue Ridge Parkway crossing. Then back up the hill again.I arrived at the punch bowl shelter at about 10 after 2 p.m. I signed the log book and had lunch. I ate a tortilla with jalapeno flavored tuna, and bacon, and mayonnaise. Picture. Then I ate a peanut butter and jelly tortilla with bacon. Picture. Both were excellent!After lunch I checked but found that the water sources at the shelter were nasty. So I decided not to get any here. I've been spent a few minutes coordinating with stanimal, and order to set up a ride from route 501 to Glasgow tomorrow morning. This was necessary because they're would be no phone service in that area or in location i intend to stop tonight. As I was wrapping that up, Rachel arrived. She had told me she was going to get picked up by her parents at the Blue Ridge Parkway crossing that I had already passed. She confirmed us again went you get to the shelter but hit said that there wasn't any where to camp near there and her parents were coming with calling day. Therefore she hit climbed up to the shelter spend the night and we go back down to your car tomorrow. The last time I had seen her she hit also said her phone was dead. I had thought about this while I was hiking, and this time I offered and she accepted a charge from my backup battery. I did not have a lot, but I hoped the some other hiker would be willing to do the same for me, at sometime when I might need to make one phone call for coordination or emergency. So I stayed at the shelter a few minutes longer will she church your phone to 10% and then turned it off. Then I hiked back up to the trail and continued south. I had 9 more miles to go. I knew that I would not have cell coverage at my destination so I decided that I would upload a partial journal when I reached the top of Bluff Mountain. Then I would have to catch up a bit after reaching the hostel tomorrow.I reached the summit of Bluff Mountain about 3:50 and spend some time uploading my initial journal for the day. I also met there a hike her names Pablo who was doing a 100 mile trek north bound to Waynesboro. We each took turns taking the other's photo and I gave him the contents of my 20 ounce water bottle because he was almost out of water, and I knew that the water source at the shelter he would be staying at was not very good. I left the peak and headed down hill to the south at about 4:15 p.m.About 5:30 p.m. I got to some cliffs North of the top of little rocky row. There was a viewpoint here overlooking the valley to the east. I took a picture. Then just before the summit there was a view to the west. Picture. The descent of little rocky row was,  well, a little rocky. There was also a narrow Ridgeline with very nice view to the east including and overlook of the James River and a railroad on its East bank.I got to the John's Hollow shelter about 630 p.m.  There was yet another group of students from Washington and Lee college already there, camping near the shelter and using the picnic table. They gave me some of the stir-fry left overs from their "iron camp-chef" competition. We traded hiking stories for a while, and then I refilled and treated all my bottles of water. After that, I made my own dinner of sweet and sour pork (a la mountain house). After dinner,  the students invited me to sit with them at the picnic table, and we played card tricks, and they also invited me to make s'mores with them. We hung bear bags after that and then just hung out at the picnic table until it was time to sleep.Before I went to bed, I signed the log book in the shelter, and I included a comment about how all four of the groups from W & L that I had met were super, courteous, enthusiastic, great attitudes, great ambassadors and representatives of their school and themselves.Surprisingly I had great phone reception here, so I updated my trail journal and captioned the pictures I had uploaded over the last several days. Then I went to sleep.