Date: 2017-09-06
From: John's Spring Shelter 

To: Niday Shelter 
Miles today: 23.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Upat 6:30 a.m., normal routine, except I was low on water so I ate my oatmeal dryand I simply put my coffee grounds into my remaining 1/2 liter of water.Westlake, Stewart, and I all started hiking about 8:00 and we crossed route 311about 20 minutes later. It was a cool morning with solid gray sky overhead. Itwas also raining lightly, but the foliage blocked most of the drops.Earlier as I was eating my oatmeal, Westland I talk to about thefact that we already smelled bad. Wesley mentioned hearing that if you smelledlike ammonia; it means you are burning muscle tissue. I considered this, and Ithought that it was likely this was happening to me. Despite eating well whenin town, the last three times I had weighed myself I had gotten progressivelylighter by 2 or three pounds each time. In Roanoke, I was 172 pounds. I havenot been this light since 1991.This morning we had also discussed our strategy for the day. Inthe morning we would climb Dragon's Tooth, which several northbound hikers hadsaid would be a challenging climb. After that we would have an opportunity toshelter about 14 miles from our start. We considered that probably was tooshort for the day. There was another shelter at 24 miles from our start, and wethought that might be too far for the day. Between the two shelters there was amountain on which we should see the monument to Audie Murphy, one of the most famoussoldiers of WWII. He had been assigned to the 3D Infantry Division,and there were constant reminders of his actions during my assignment in thatunit. My hard copy guide book did not list them, but my Gut Hook app on myphone showed campsite on both the near and far side of that intermediatemountain top. Thus, we initially planned that we would camp at one of thosesites. Everything is subject to reassessment later in the day, of course.The morning's hike once again took us along, back and forthatop a long, narrow ridgeline oriented roughly northeast to southwest. Around 9:15 a.m., it began to rain harder and consistently, andthe ground which had been mostly dry previously became steadily wetter and more slippery. By 9:30 I was fairly well soaked through. However, this being a Virginia trail, generally speaking it was smoother and better maintained than trails Ihad hiked in other states. So we still made pretty good time. After reaching Route 624 at about 10:30am, we were able to take a .3 mile off-trail diversion to a gasstation to refill our water bottles. Wesley and I also decided to share a pizza for lunch at the conveniencestore. We consulted our notes and decided to modify our plan for the next fewdays. We got just a little more food, so instead of stopping in NewportVirginia as tentatively planned, we would aim to stop in Pearisburg Virginia instead. We spent just over an hour atthe convenience store and then headed out again sometime around 11:30. Wewalked the .3 miles back to the trail and headed up the steep incline to thesouth.On my map I noticed that the trail paralleled the path I musthave taken several years ago when I climbed here with my family. Jenna and Ihad joined Joey and several of his college friends for the climb up Dragon's Tooth from the parking lot below. The path I was taking now along theAppalachian Trail ran along the top of a serpentine ridgeline which paralleledthe path taken by the trail from the parking lot, through the valley just northof us and below. I remembered that at that time, probably sometime in the Fallof 2013, I had been 35 to 40 pounds heavier than I had weighed when last on thescale a couple days ago. That meant that I was basically carrying as muchweight, with no backpack then, as I was now with my full backpack!The final ascent was difficult, but it was great to see theactual "tooth" on top. I remembered being there with Joey andJenna. I took pictures. There, we also saw BFG (whom I had met previously in the100 mi wilderness, in Maine). We chatted, and then we continued south.The climb down was not as difficult, but it was rocky andslippery. Then we climbed up again, to reach Mount Brush and the monumentto Audie Murphy at the very top. there was a monument to America's mostdecorated soldier from World War 2. He had died in a plane crash at that siteon May 28th, 1971. The area around the monument was decorated with piles (cairns) ofsmall rocks and with a multitude of items of memorabilia fromhikers and soldiers. We stopped there for a few minutes, and Wesley took mypicture. After a short stay, we continued on and soon climbed down,continuing south. We continued hiking down. It has been a long, cold wet day and Iwas tired and sore. My feet ached. My knees we're also sore from theclimbing particularly my left, which felt like I must have strained theligaments on the outside of the joint. We decided to stop at the first of theupcoming campsite on the way down. However, when we got there we were not impressed and decided to push on to the second campsite. However, its location was not clearly identifiable and we were not satisfied speculating about what might be the site, so had not settled on that plan. Meanwhile the clouds had begun to break andspots of sunshine were appearing. With the sun came some warm, and asI began to dry off my spirits lifted somewhat. So, we decided to journey on andstop at the Niday Shelter. We arrived there about 6:30 p.m. Ben and BFGshowed up about an hour later. I took off my wet shoes, and I made and atedinner. After updating the text of my trail journal, I checked for cellularreception, but I found nothing. Posting my journal would have to wait untilsometime tomorrow. Oh, the Niday shelter is at southbound mile marker 1504 pointsomething. So, sometime yesterday before our final road crossing I passed my1500th mile on the Appalachian Trail! About 685 miles to go.