Date: 2004-05-12
From: Four Pines Hostel

To: Lamberts Meadow Campsite
Miles today: 16.4
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 73Start: Four Pines HostelDest.: Lamberts Meadow CampsiteMiles: 16.4Total: 704.8We awoke early and had leftover pizza for breakfast. I almost think it tasted better this morning. Wolfcookie and I finished our game of darts that we started last night. It was a pretty intense game but Dances ended up winning, maybe someday he will learn to lose. Honeypie stepped in to play the winner (Dances). The first game was sorta close but Dances still won. They decided to play 2 out of 3...Dances put on a clinic and ended the game after only 5 rounds...gotta love those tripples.Honeypie entertained us again this morning with some piano playing and trail lyrics he was making up on the fly. I cant remember the last time I laughed that much over the past two days. Ahhh, neat fun, yeah good times! We hit the trail around 10am. It was a short 0.3 from the hostel to the trail. For a good portion of the hiking we walked with Toe-ritus, a laidoff software developer from Pinnacle. He is a really nice guy and fun to hike with.Today's highpoints were:1. McAfee Knob: This is one of the most photographed locations on the trail. You typicaly see pictures of hikers sitting on the edge of an overhanging rock ledge with long views in the background. Of course, we had to take our pictures sitting on the ledge too. From McAfee you can see Roanoke, The Peaks of Otter, and incredible views of the valleys below. It truly is a wonderful location.2. Breaking the 700 mile mark: Just after the Cambell Shelter we walked past the 700 mile mark. We are now less than 1474.1 miles from Katahdin!3. Tinker Cliffs: The trail follwed the Tinker Cliffs for a half mile. This was an amazing part of the trail with the sun setting in the background. The views of the valleys, mountain ranges and sheer drop-offs were incredible. Unfortunatley Wolfcookie's feet and knees were hurting badly. She tried to enjoy the views and even posed for a few pictures. Thankfully it was only 2 miles to the campsites.4. Ben-gay: We were introduced to the pleasures of putting ben-gay on your feet to help relieve some of the burning you get across the ball area of the foot by Toe-ritus. Wolfcookie tried it and her feet felt alot better for a few miles. We are going to pickup some Flexall 454 tomorrow since we both like that better than ben-gay. Hopefully it will add some relief to the pounding foot pain we both experience.Tomorrow we hike to Troutville and begin the journey to Trail Days back in Damascus. We are still not comfortable with taking 3 more zero days but we figured it would be fun to see what Trail Days is all about. We spent some time today looking at our schedule since we are now a week behind. It is still possible to make it by August 27th but we will really have to put in the miles everyday. Hopefully we will find the strength to put in a few 20's here and there. I don't know what we were thinking when we put the schedule together at home...I guess walking for 20's in a row seems easy sitting on the couch planning. But in reality its pretty tough for us to walk four 15-16's in a row. Well we are not going to worry about the schedule, one way or another we will finish the trail this year.Goodnight,~Dances with Wolf Cookie