Date: 2006-04-02
From: Fulhardt Knob Shelter

To: Wilson's Creek Shelter
Miles today: 6.2
Weather: clear sky

2 Apr 2006 - Destination: Wilson Creek Shelter (About 6.2 miles)I was very cold around 06:00. Finally I got up about 06:40, had breakfast (finished yesterday's gorp bag and had a peanut butter sandwich) while transcribing yesterday's verbal notes. After finishing the transcription, I erased all the verbal notes, repacked the bag putting the spare boots down low and left the Fulhardt Knob Shelter about 08:15 at 6,681 steps. My objective today is the creeks, about four miles away, and then the Wilson Creek Shelter about 7 miles away.08:15 - Note on packing: when wearing the hot stuff (fleece pants, silk shirt over high tech shirt, ...) I should pack the blue pants, shorts and black shirt so I can easily get to them and change on the trail. I've just passed the 0.1 mile sign to the shelter, going downhill. It is an absolutely beautiful morning and I am warming up a little bit. There is a pure blue sky with white, almost stationary drifting clouds, and a community off to the left. I am watching the cloud shadows move slowly across the community as I walk downhill. The pack doesn't feel much lighter, but I feel a little better and find it easier to endure. Maybe I am just getting used to it.08:33 - A squirrel just crossed my path from right to left while I am on the downhill road from the shelter. It stopped, looked at me for about 5 seconds, then scampered on.08:54 - Break time, just as the trail turns right off the nice downhill road I have been traipsing along. It has been a steady walk, without heavy breathing, and I need to tighten up the straps and get a pebble out of my left shoe. The sere surroundings consist of short bare tree limbs with very few green areas. The ground is brownish and covered with last fall's leaves with an occasional flower poking its way up.I have changed clothes, removing the silk shirt and switched to my black shorts. I have to put the pedometer/clock inside my underwear as otherwise I will lose it when it falls off. Yesterday my friends had to pick it up several times after it fell off. Wherever I put it, it seems to interfere with something - the fanny pack, which is being used as a belly pack, or the straps of the big pack. Now that I've switched to shorts the trail turned uphill and got very narrow so, while it is much more comfortable from a temperature point of view, I am getting scratched by things on either side of the trail. That's Murphy.09:27 5692 - The trail, since the road, has been all uphill. Some 5% grades, most 1% grades with some level spots. I am sweating like the proverbial stuck pig, and would like to drink a liter or more of water, but I have to ration it very very closely. Hopefully I'll be at the creeks before I run out. I am still breathing through my nose, but every 20-50 steps I have to stop and rest, otherwise it would be heavy duty mouth breathing, and that is not good with low water.9:38 5742 - I've reached the top of this little hill and am taking a pack off break. I am recovering my breath while sitting on a log eating gorp and taking a small sip of water (when I really want a quart or so). There is a gentle (around 1 mph) breeze that feels extraordinarily good. The sun is out.9:58 5745 - That was a local high, from which I descended doing relatively well. Since the descent it has been mostly rolling ups and downs. I'm starting to feel a little bit of pull in my left shoulder because the pack is slightly unbalanced. Note: my short rests usually involve a four point stance with my poles out in front holding my shoulders, with or without my hands explicitly in the way, while bent over so that the pack weight is supported on my back split between the poles and my legs. pack on top ___________ / back \ <- my head / _________\_____ / / \ \ / / \ \ Legs Poles10:11 5746 - Found another rock to sit on. Down to about 1.5" water in the 24oz drinking bottle. Seems to be rather steady ups and downs. On the ups I seem to have to stop every 5-10 steps for 5-15 seconds, on the downs I can sort of keep on going but it is starting to wear me down a great deal. This break is until my heart and breathing both slow down.NOTE: The pedometer steps are not accurate and cannot be used for any real measurements. Sometimes they are reasonably good as relative measurements, but the device must be regarded as inherently untrustworthy.10:57 5754 - Middle of long downhill, pack off break, taking an approximately 15 minute nap lying on the ground with my head on a stone. I am really all tuckered out. If there is another hill to climb at the bottom of this hill, before water, then I'm going to be in bad shape, but I will go on. I bag balmed my feet, and they are ok.11:00 - I am still lying down. It is hard to get up. I have less than three sips of water left. Hopefully, this rest will allow me to get most of the rest of the way, with a stop in about one hour for lunch (gorp & pb). This day is utterly beautiful, lovely scudding white clouds, a breeze of 1 to 2 mph, and a gorgeous, mostly solid deep blue sky. I am very lucky. these last two days have been superb for hiking, with no inclement weather, although we thought there would be some. The only problem that I see is solitude. I am alone, but that's the way its going to be (probably for a long time) and that is sort of the way I want it, so I can't be to discouraged by it (although it would have added an interesting fillip if the wished for companion had chosen to come along.)11:35 5767 - I've reached the sign that says "Salt Pond Road" and the Fulhardt Shelter is 2.8 miles behind me. That means I've got somewhat more than a mile to go to get to water. That nap made all the difference since I have been going down hill fairly steadily. Without it I would have to stop every 15-25 steps. Passed an interesting dead log on the left side of the trail that had a whole streak of grey and white limbs one to three feet tall sticking out of it. It looked like an oversize askew comb. As I said before - a beautiful day without even any bothersome insects. After crossing Salt Pond Road, which is a well manicured dirt road, there is a sign which indicates that the Wilson Creek Shelter is 3.4 miles and Blackhorse gap is 5.8 miles. The creeks should be before the shelter.11:57 - Pack off break, eating a handfull of gorp and getting ready for the final hike to the creeks. I am out of water, but very happy as I can just hear the sound of running water. I should get some soon, and I am very dry.12:17 - I am at the side of Curry Creek. The water looks extremely clean at the small waterfall, and there appears to be between 1/4 and 1/2 mile of gentle falls, drops, moss, sun, lots of oxygenation and between 100 and 300 "minows" ranging from one to three inches long cavorting in the water just below the 3 inch falls and the water pick up point. I'm going to live dangerously and drink the water straight. I drank about one liter straight, and filled up 2 two liter bottles and the nalgene bottle and the drinking bottle.NOTE: - Just to document this - I am taking 1000 IU of E, a multivitamin and 200mg of CoQ-10 each morning.12:34 - A couple with a dog just came through. He and the dog got here about 5 minutes before she did. The dog, a golden retriever, basically messed up the water hole. They are hiking from the parkway to Wilson's Creek and back, so I should run into them again. Meanwhile, I am waiting for the water to clear after the dog's antics, including rolling in the leaves after he left the water. I need to refill as the nalgene is empty and I am well into a two liter bottle. They were not very communicative, but they did want to know if Fullhardt Knob had any water. I told him no, based upon my experience there last night. He's wearing a white top and dark shorts and their pack. She's wearing a red top and blue shorts. Curry Creek is a low point on the trail, and I watched them climb out. The water had cleared up, and I refilled my bottles. The dog was rolling and playing below the pickup point so the water I was getting was not disrupted too much. I saw the minnows and spent several minutes watching a water spider moving sometimes upstream, sometimes down. I will need to call the folks in Charlottesville to update my schedule. I will not attempt Bobblet's Gap tonight.13:05 - After resting, drinking and lunch, I headed out for the Wilson's Creek Shelter. The two filled 2 liter bottles are on the side of the pack, the empty 2 liter bottle is back center. I finished a bag of gorp during this rest, which I greatly enjoyed. I am not looking forward to the climb in front of me, but that's the way it goes. It was a nice interlude. I have swapped into the black sleeveless shirt from the high tech shirt. We'll see what happens.11:36 5767 - It has been a very steep hike out from Curry Creek, but, having been refreshed, it seems to go fairly well. I did discover something interesting: having a loose shoelace with this pack on can be very frustrating. You can't bend over to retie it without falling. I am about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up the hill and it is a pleasure to be able to take a full mouthfull of water, instead of just a tiny little sip. I am getting a definite muscle pull on the left side. I think the weight is still not distributed the way I want it to be. The pull is up to my left ear and down to my shoulder. 14:07 - Pack off break. I am approaching the crest. It has been a long slow go up this hill but at least I mostly made it. I need to refill the 24 ounce drinking bottle. I moved a bag of gorp to the drinking bottle container bag to let me nibble. I rested for about five minutes, drank same water, and then kept on going.14:15 - This is turning out to be a real workout, but I notice that whenever I sit down and pause, I'm always looking forward, never looking back. I think I'm going to keep on going. In the distance a cow just burped. 14:19 - It was the crest. The two hikers and dog that went by before just came back. They claimed 35 minutes to Wilson's Creek, not the shelter. Another 0.7 miles to the shelter after that. It looks like I have a fighting chance to get to the shelter before dark. I'm feeling fairly good.14:27 - Minor contremps where my right pole lost its lock and collapsed a bit. Nothing dangerous. The lock just sort of gave way as I was going downhill. I tightened it up a little bit and it seems to be ok.14:31 - I slipped on a one eighth inch diameter twig six inches long which rolled under my foot. I fell, luckily on the side of the trail which falls of rather steeply, but a small bush/tree was in the way, and I stopped with a smack of it against my right cheek, and a severly bent right pole. The bush/tree caught my fall and prevented my load from pulling me downhill. No apparent damage to me except for a sore cheek. Nothing was broken. The pack weight really pulled me down with no chance of recovery of balance. So I got back up, straightened the pole, and continued downhill.14:39 - At the bottom of this set of hills there is a creek which is nowhere near as clean as Curry Creek. The water is almost stagnent and I estimate that the flow is about 10% of Curry Creek's flow. It looks like there are some more hills to climb. There is no signage on this creek and my initial assumption is that this is Wilson's Creek proves wrong later on. I'm not feeling any effects of the fall, but have made the "straightened" right pole my left pole, as I give the right one a harder workout.15:05 - I just finished coming down most of this hill and hit a dried creek bed at the bottom. I noticed that there was a section that I had just done that was about 50 steps long that was going uphill and that I didn't even notice it while I was traversing it. I was sort of daydreaming when I was walking over it and didn't even discover it was there until I was already at the top of it. The daydream, of "The She" was interesting, and somewhat erotic. A nice way to make the miles go by without noticing them. Apparently I have reached the bottom, for there is another creek here. What little water that I see is standing, and would require extensive purification before use. Lucky I don't need any. On the other side of the creek there appears to be a rather large rise. At this point I had no idea where the shelter is, since I was still assuming the previous creek was Wilson's creek.15:27 - I seem to be at a minor peak and am taking a pack off break for water and gorp and am going to lie down for a bit. Given my missidentification of Wilson's Creek and that the shelter should have been only 0.7 miles from the creek, I was becoming afraid that I might have missed the sign while daydreaming. In that case my next significant feature will be Blackhorse Gap on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I'll eventually find out, so I keep on going.NOTE: do not wear this pack with tank tops. It rubs the shoulders and leaves them very sore. It needs something under the shoulder straps and handkerchiefs are insufficient.15:37 - This seems to have been a rather long pull, so far, looking for the Wilson's Creek shelter. The next time I stop should be the shelter or to refill the drinking bottle. It is beautiful up here, pleasant temperature. I've been just sitting in the lotus position listening to the leaves blow around a little bit and looking at the trees. A few even have small white buds on them. I don't really want to get up and go, but I suppose I better if I am going to get to a shelter by the time dark hits.16:05 - I think I just passed Wilson's Creek. It has been a fairly tough uptrend and then a long downtrend. The sign says the shelter is 0,7 miles, looks like all up. Wilson's Creek seems to have about 3 times the flow volume of Curry Creek but it doesn't look as clean.I just passed a small open oval which has a sign claiming it was a "coller's pit" in the late 1700's and early 1800's, when it was used to make charcoal for nearby iron furnaces. "pit" is missleading. Actually it was, and still is, a level area, clear of rocks and the site was chosen for proximity to the iron furnaces and because it's location was downhill from an abundant timber supply. Around 1837 the development of anthracite coal outmoded this and the iron furnaces moved closer to the coal, leaving a nice round empty spot that someone stuck a sign in the middle of. (much of this info is derived from that sign.)16:43 - At the Wilson's Creek Shelter! Whew! (note: I counted the steps coming up in blocks of 100. I was doing 50-100 steps per break. With 0.7 miles approximately 3500 ft I get about 1750 steps, and I actually counted about 1900. Trail Magic - bottle of spring water present. There was also a trail journal book, which I added to, a deck of cards, and a month old Roanoke Times. Gorp, peanut butter sandwich, and water at the picnic table while I transcribed my recorded notes into my notebook.This shelter is the standard design with an exposed picnic table, the privy off to the right, and a fireplace which I did not use. Notes while sitting on the privy and reminisces: during the first day, when we crossed two styles (overfence upside down stepped V's), when one of my friends was carrying my pack, I went through the open side area on one of the styles. It looked almost like a doggy passage way. I have suffered no apparent effect from my fall and there are no indications of any problems with the (untreated) Curry Creek water. There is no toilet paper in the privy, but otherwise it seems clean, with a WalMart bag hanging up for trash. There is a toilet bowl brush on the floor! - what is it used for? I am not being properly modest, having left the door open while sitting, and am currently watching the mountains in front. Lovely blue sky with light clouds and the sun coming from the rear of the privy, so the privy must be facing east.19:30 - I have been transcribing for over two hours and it's gotten chilly. Fleece pants, high tech shirt, bag balmed feet, swapped boots to let trail shoes air out and finished a bag of gorp and one peanut butter sandwich. I have not tested the stove yet, but I did use one of the 9 hour candles - it needs a wind screen. After dark used pot base + fire snuffer muffin tin as holder, surrounded by pop bottles as a wind screen. The shelter is pitch black with no lights visible. I used toilet paper to wipe off excess bag balm and went to bed. I'm trying the actual pack as a pillow, with soft materials in it, using the seperable foot of the bag to retain clothes overnight so that they will be warm in the morning. I discovered that I can leave a foot hole open so that the bag is not so hot. (The zipper can also be opened from the bottom.)23:35 - the rain came.