Date: 2016-05-01
From: Cornelius Creek Shelter

To: Glasgow, VA Shelter
Miles today: 19.9
Weather: light rain

Waking up at 5 am well rested isn't a bad thing on the trail unless it is pouring rain out and it was! I tried to get internet to check the weather but the signal was weak and intermittent and I could not get anything... so I decided to try to go back to sleep. A little while later I woke up again and managed to send out some text's to try to get a weather update. It was still early and with the intermittent unreliable signal "THANKS AT&T" I was just figuring on rain all day...My plan called for going the 17.7 miles to Matt's Creek Shelter and by the time I realized it I was already behind the 8 Ball.... I figured everyone else would be in a race of sorts to get to the shelter to claim a space so they didn't have to deal with setting up a wet tent in the rain again... When I finally packed up and got out to break down my tent and get moving I found I was one of the only ones left... everyone else was packed up and gone...I packed up quickly and put on the packa and headed out with just the 3/4 liter of Gatorade. I figured in the cool rainy morning I could go light on the water and hopefully be able to catch someone / pass some of the other hikers to get a shelter spot. I usually didn't stop for lunch so I figured if I moved it I might be able to pass someone... I was hiking as fast as I could and managed to catch one guy and pass him up... but then as the day went on... things started to warm up and the sun came out. It actually started to get HOT! My 3/4 liter of gatorade didn't last long and I hiked for a couple of miles until the next water source came up where I drank a liter and filled up my bottles. I hiked on and passed the first shelter where I saw a couple hikers had stopped for lunch. So far so good... but then as I was checking my position on the map I realized I was making good time. The miles were going by rapidly and I figured even if I made it to Matt's Creek Shelter I wouldn't have enough food to get to Buena Vista AND Glasgow was ONLY another 2 miles and change... with a restaurant... Scotto's with PIZZA and a hot shower at the shelter... So I found out Scotto's was open until 8 pm since it was a Sunday night. I could make it there in plenty of time so I changed my plans and set out to get to Glasgow... my 17.7 miles morphed into 19.9 but that was fine.I made it to the road across the St. James River bridge about 4:30 which was amazing time for me... there were a few other hikers there and as it ended up... one of them was being picked up by his wife for a while and Captain America was going to get a ride into Glasgow... so I asked if I could get a ride and that was way cool... within 5 minutes she had arrived and we were on our way. Had I arrived just 10 minutes later I would have missed the ride and had to try to hitch into town... Thank you for the ride!As I walked to the shelter... a grey bearded hiker came into view... Subman was there with Suds... That made it double worth it to get into town...I took a hot shower and got on clean clothes, layed out my tent in the sun to dry out... hung my sleeping bag on a clothes line to dry out some and then went over for dinner at Scotto's with Subman, Suds, AK and a few other hikers... I'm really bad with names...I ended up getting a philly cheese steak instead of a pizza. The food at Scotto's was really good and I would recommend it to anyone in the area...After dinner I went to the grocery store to get a few snacks for the trail and went back to the shelter... Glasgow is an amazing town. Very hiker friendly with a "free" shelter in town, a shower with hot water, electricity in the shelter and Scotto's, a grocery store and library with wifi all near by!