Date: 2004-05-26
From: Hwy US11/VA683 (Relax Inn)

To: Knot Maul shelter
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: light rain

A thunderstorm rolled through about 5:00am this morning so I rolled over for an extra hour's sleep to give the trees a chance to drip dry and to let someone else take the trail first to shake the water off the grass and brush. There's a delicate dance each morning when breaking camp. You want to be on the trail early, but not the first one to leave. So you fuss around with breakfast or your gear until someone can't take the delay any more and strikes out. They get to clear all the spiderwebs across the trail and brush off the dew or water from the plants. Of course if you catch up and they offer to let you go ahead, you can't refuse, so you may still get a chance to be the webbreaker if you're too eager to walk.After breakfast at The Barn, I was off at 7:45am to the Davis Path shelter where I had a second breakfast of the carryout sausage and biscuit from the restaurant. On the way I came upon a mother grouse and at least one chick. The mother ran off down the trail slowly, mewling and hissing and pretending to be hurt. The chick went to ground and was so still and well marked that I couldn't spot it when I went by, even though I knew where it was.I caught up with Dreamer and Eveready at a road crossing where they were having lunch. Dreamer is from Hattiesburg, MS and is in his 60's. He left Springer with about 80 pounds of gear. The outfitter at Neel's Gap went through his pack and he sent home 42 pounds.The hiking today was mostly through open fields, which was a nice change from the woods even though there were occasional rain showers. I was to the Knot Maul shelter at 3:00 pm. The grumble of thunder to the north was continuous and the next shelter was 9mi farther, so I called it a day. The rain was coming down steadily by 5:00pm. At the shelter with me were Eveready, Dreamer, Sal (from Wisconsin), Roadrunner, Puck Finn and one other.OneLeg and his son Tyler came in for a while. You may have read about Scott Rogers from Washburn, TN who is thruhiking with a hightech artificial leg. If he suceeds he'll be the second amputee to do it. A few years ago he accidentally shot himself in the leg with a shotgun, which eventually led to amputation of the leg above the knee. A firm in Germany built him a solar-powered hydraulic leg that he is using for the hike. A very nice and down-to-earth guy. We urged him to stay, but he said he had to make his miles, and they hiked off into the rain. Made the rest of us feel a little embarassed about quitting so early but we soon got over it as the rain continued. Spiceman, Lorax, French Connection and one other came in late and the shelter was filled plus several tents were set up. As darkness fell we started trading hiking stories. Here are a couple.One day Sal and two women hikers decided to take a side road off the trail to a restaurant for lunch. As they hiked along the gravel road they heard a vehicle coming. They turned to stick out their thumbs in front of a long driveway and suddenly noticed the pit bull that was charging down the driveway toward them without a sound, intent on attack. Just as the dog reached the road and charged for them, the pickup roared by and took out the dog, saving them from a serious mauling. That was the only vehicle they saw on the road that day.The second story was a second-hand one about two hikers (whose names I didn't get) who were hitching into a town late one afternoon. A car pulled over and they hopped in. They then noticed that the driver had no legs and that the car wasn't converted for a handicapped driver. He was using a baseball bat to operatw the gas and brakes. He was also a little high on something. But it was too late to hop out; by the time all this registered the car had roared away, ball bat to the metal, so to speak. Away they went along the winding mountain road. The driver also had that habit of some drivers of looking directly at you when they're talking to you, and this guy talked a lot. The hikers were pretty much speechless. The driver stopped to pick up a friend who only had one leg. The driver then insisted on stopping at a bar for a beer for everyone. Once inside, a rowdy patron bumped into his wheelchair and tumped him over. This made his one-legged friend furious and he jumped on the clumsy man, eventually winning the fight that followed. That broke up the bar stop and the driver asked where the hikers wanted to go next. They thanked him for the ride and gave him some money for his trouble, essentially paying him five bucks NOT to drive them anywhere else. But they can now say that they DID ACTUALLY MEET the man who won the one-legged *ss kicking contest!Off to sleep to the sound of the steady rain.