Date: 2005-05-10
From: Wise Shelter

To: Trimpi Shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: light rain

I¢m in my tent right now. It¢s dusk. I¢m trying to talk very quietly because OC1 and Buffalo Bob are both tarped within 25 feet of me. There¢s a light rain coming down. Off and on, there¢s the sound of distant thunder. Today was another 20 miles and another new set of faces. As has become routine, OC1 and I got up at quarter to seven, or were walking by quarter to seven. And by 1:00 we already had in 16 miles. That was to Virginia 650 road to Troutdale; and to the Troutdale Trading Post, which is a small store. It is a small diner with a small store in it. It had burgers and various fried dishes; daily specials; and some small resupply stuff. There¢s a misconception that long distance hiking is about being in the woods and being fit. But, what it¢s really about is running from food source to food source before running out of energy. The kind of miles that we¢re doing, we burn about eight to ten thousand calories. A thirty mile day means burning twelve thousand calories. In my case, my mail drops average about five days apart. OC1, by the way, has about an eight day run between mail drops this time. It¢s just impossible to carry 80,000 calories worth of food. There¢s just no way that you can carry that much food and be able to hike. That is why long distance hikers lose weight, among other reasons. Personally, I have already lost 20 pounds and I am eating everything in sight that I can. In order to survive this expedition, you¢ve got to stop into town between mail drops and supplement the food you carry on the trail with food that you are missing on the trail that is impossible to carry; that being protein and fats; meat being the key word here. Thru-hikers dream and talk forever about upcoming opportunities to drop into a town and pig out and eat hamburgers and steaks and chicken and whatever they can get; anything but freezedried food or GORP or noodles. At the Trading Post I had a ham dinner which consisted of a few chunks of ham, some mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and that was meal number one. And then meal number two was a double decker cheeseburger after I finished the ham dinner, and then chased that down with a vanilla cream milkshake made by Hershey¢s.It was our fate to be at the Troutdale Trading Post because while we were sitting there a vicious, horrendous storm came up, with thunder and lightening crashing outside. It suddenly started hailing. As we were sitting there, a couple of hikers who were unlucky enough to get caught in the hail and the rain, came in drenched. They were complaining about getting hit by the hail. One of them was Gypsy Loogle. Luckily, we had sat out there at the intersection of 650 and the AT trying to hitch a ride. There were no cars that were going by and the few that did didn¢t slow down for us. I was bound and determined that after running all day I was going to get a cheeseburger. I decided that if I had to run the three miles down to get one I would. Vern did too. Luckily we only had to slog about a mile before this van pulled over. It was already full of thru-hikers that Scuba had picked up. (Scuba is a thru-hiker from 2004.) He just happened to be driving down the road. He plans on hiking from Troutdale to Damascus in time to make it to Trail Days. Not only did he give us a ride down, but he gave us a ride back as well.So we pigged out; got a ride back from Scuba to the trail; then we hiked pretty slowly. We were just absolutely packed with food. We got back to the Trimpi Shelter, where we proceded to cook and eat more food. I had a turkey tetrazinni; double order of hot chocolate with coffee mixed in; some tea and all kinds of drinking stuff. Everyone is suddenly dehydrated. True to form, as soon as we went over Grayson Highlands, in fact, in the middle of the Grayson Highlands, it suddenly went from winter to summer; not even a spring. Yesterday it went up into the 80¢s. People weren¢t used to it and weren¢t drinking enough water. They were dehydrated. Vern (OC1), while he was sitting across from me, swallowed three 20 ounces of Coke within minutes of each other. I think I¢ve drank, just in water alone today, probably four liters, and I¢m still thirsty. A quick side note: There is a beagle on the trail (as in a dog beagle). This beagle has been around since last week now. Apparently, somebody abandoned him, or maybe he is a stray or whatever, but he has been following hikers since before Damascus; seventy miles back. One of the hikers tried to get the Humane Society to pick him up but they wouldn¢t. So, the dog¢s been traveling on the trail. He ends up at a shelter, and the first hiker that hikes out, he follows them. This guy's a little guy. He weighs 12 pounds at the most, but he has been hiking his little butt off. In the last three days, he has hiked more miles than the average thru-hiker. This dog¢s been at every shelter we¢ve been at the end of the day, which is over 53 miles for this dog in three days. This includes a hike over the Grayson Highlands, which is no small chore. Although this dog may not live much longer because I¢ve got a bone to pick with him. He managed to pee on my Platypus that I am filling with water tonight, so he may end up dying soon.The rain seems to be slacking off as I am talking right now. Hopefully it will drop off tonight, and that it is clear tomorrow, because a whole pack of us are planning on running the ten miles to Partnership Shelter. That is only a tenth of a mile from the Grayson Highlands Headquarters. From there, you can use a pay phone to order pizza from a local pizzeria. They deliver it right there. That¢s the big talk of the town right now. The big talk of the trail is to have lunch, pizza tomorrow, at Partnership Shelter. That¢s it for tonight. Goodnight.