Date: 2007-07-07
From: Calf Mountain Hut

To: Paul C. Wolfe Shelter
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: scattered clouds

As soon as I finsihed journaling last night (and I apologize for all the typos) and get into my sleeping bag, a young and very green (meaning inexperienced camper) man arrives. He's name is Jonathon and he is a grad student out for a few days. He's wearing blue jeans and a cotton t-shirt and his pack has to weigh about 100 pounds. He has all sorts of stuff attached to it and some of it like his pot is falling off. (The pot attached to the outside of his pack alerted me to his arrival long before I saw him as I could hear it clanking against other things attached to his pack.) He drops the pack and pulls out his cell phone and is frustrated that he does not have signal. He wants to call home to let his mom know that he is still alive, so I help him out and let him use my phone. I also try and give him some advice about hanging your food bag and leaving your pack zippers open so the mice don't tear apart the pack and what to do if you see a bear. He rolls out his pad an! d sleeping bag and pretty much collapses without doing any of the things I suggested. So this morning as I am leaving at 6:30, I leave him a note wishing him well on his trip and letting him know to fill up on water as the next 12 miles are dry. I hope this kid makes it.As I leave the blue blaze shelter trail and get back on the AT, I soon hear a rustle to the left and look to see two baby bear cubs. I freeze and start talking to them asking where is mama. I don't see her anywhere which makes me nervous. As I continue to talk and to look around for mama, the cubs climb higher into the tree. I see two deer run off behind the cubs and then see a big bear run off away from me and the cubs as well. I assume this is the mama and with the cubs 100 feet up the tree, I quicky pass them and get on down the trail. Bear count now at 15. I pass some really big trees on the way up to Calf Mtn summit. Then I startle a whole family of grouse and one of them even does her wounded wing impression for me and then waddles down the trail. This is trail entertainment at its finest. I climb up to Bears Den Mtn and it really should be renamed to Bunny Rabbit Mtn for all the bunnies that I saw or Technology Tower Mtn for all the cable and phone and satte! lite dishes and towers that are up there. I arrive at Rockfish Gap at 10 and a man out running asks me if I need a ride to Waynesboro and I accept. Turns out he's a pastor and asks me how my walk is with Jesus. I guess I'm in the Bible Belt now. He shows me around town and even offers to wait for me at the post office (to mail home maps and a book I no longer need) and then take me to the YMCA. What an angel! The folks at the Y are super nice and the shower feels wonderful. Next, I stop in the library and check my email. I meet up with Hawkeye and Wyoming whom I had met yesterday. Hawkeye got sick so they had the ranger drive them back to Waynesboro. I head over to the AYCE Chinese buffet and make some phone calls while I dine. Then I head over to Kroger for resupply. Lastly, I make my way over to the BZ Laundromat and wash my nasty clothes. A former ranger is there and chats with me and even buys be a bottled water. I write some journals and make a few phone calls while I wait on my laundry. Then I call! one of the Waynesboro Trail Angels for a ride back to the trail. Pam and Craig pick me up and they are the nicest folks. They have a little terrior with them that they are dog sitting and he is hyper.I ended the day with a fast five miles to the shelter passing through the ruins of an old community said to be haunted. I didn't see any ghosts though. There are two fellas at the shelter and it turns out that I have met one of them, Chief. We met this past winter at the Southern Ruck and are both friends of Stumpknocker. We talk a bit and then I retreat to my hammock for the night. It was a good day.