Date: 2016-05-11
From: Thunder Hill Shelter

To: Glasgow VA
Miles today: 14.6

6/11/16We had a pretty good rain last night but it ended before daylight. I set my tent up on some sort of nest....I kept hearing buzzing all night but could never find anything. It was right by my head, thought it was going to drive me insane...lol. But when I packed my tent up I really never seen anything but a few holes in the ground. Everyone was up and heading out early...I was one of the last to leave at eight. I hiked with Who DAT for a while this morning. He just got back on the trail this week after having issues with shin splints. He is a big muscular guy with tattoos and a mohawk. He worked at a desk for a chemistry job and decided he needed something different. He is thinking about going back to school next spring to become a dentist. A big event coming up this weekend is hiker days in Damascus VA. Several people are going back for it so it will be interesting to see who continues to hike. It is a big party and not my thing. A lot of gear vendors are there though. Several of the people I have been keeping pace with are going back. Today I had to go to 12 miles to get to the next shelter. We were hiking in a fog part of the time and the green trees and green ground cover with the moisture was beautiful. We stopped at one overlook a d didn't expect to see much but we were between a layer of clouds above us and below us and you could just see the mountain tops around us for a pretty cool picture. I stopped about seven miles into the hike for some lunch....the next shelter was five miles further so I threw out my sleeping pad sat down and ate. After eating I laid on my back for a minute and ended up taking a short nap before a iratating fly woke me up. Who DAT and I had planned to do 16 miles today. I stopped at the shelter and loaded up on water from a stream and chatted with a few hikers. Who DAT hadn't made it yet and I pressed on. Who DAT and I was trying to make it to Waynesboro by Monday but we were both short a days worth of food. After I hiked about a half of mile I realized I forgot my water bottles so back I went. Shortly after i saw a snake slither off into the grass. By the time I got back Who DAT was there and I asked if he would be interested in going into Glasgow to resupply. We would have to get to the next road and hitch a ride. If we couldn't catch a ride we could go to the shelter and try another day. He said that sounded good. So we set out....WhoDat about stepped on the snake about a half mile down the trail but fancy footwork avoided it. We had to cross the James river and it has one of the longest foot bridges on the AT. On the other side we passed a couple fishing and asked if they were having any luck. They said not really. We got to the parking lot and two couples were getting ready to cross the bridge and asked if we were thru hiking. We said yes and they asked if we would like some food. I said a true thru hiker wouldn't turn it down. They brought out sandwiches, rice cakes,, cheese, soda, fruit and brownies and told us to take it all they had just got done eating. We tried to leave some but they insisted we take it. We talked for a good 20 minutes. We started to hear some thunder. They headed for the bridge and we went to hitch a ride. After a couple cars passed us by the people fishing came up and said they would drive us the six miles into town. So we got a ride in...the town has a place you can tent camp for free with a hot shower. So we spent the night and I was able to update my journal. We had a few light ran showers throughout the day but it was a great day to be a hiker