Date: 2012-04-30
From: Atkins, VA

To: Knot Maul Branch Shelter
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: broken clouds

This morning Big Sky, Medicine Man and Runner went to the Barn Resaruant while I figured out how I was going to get to the post office to get my mail drops. I saw that Lime Green and his wife were packing up their car and I asked if they had time to take me up to the post office and they said they could. Lime Green took me up to the post office and dropped me off because he had to get going up the trail. My new pack had arived but my summer gear had not - some how it had gotten lost between Damascus and here. They are going to send my pacage up to Pearisburg for me whenever they get it so I hope it is there when I get there. I was going to need to walk or hitch a ride back to the motel but Lime Green's wife drove back to the post office after she dropped Lime Green off at the trail and she drove me back to the motel....thanks Lime Green and Mrs. Lime Green!! Once I was back at the motel, I packed my gear into my new pack and we headed back to the trail at around 11:00am. The trail went under Inerstate 81 and back into some farm fields and once again it was really hot out today and it really wore us out. Soon we were back in the trees and got to a camp site where we meet Blue Fox once again. We stayed for a while and headed back up the trail. From the camp site, the trail went up and down two mountains but they were not too high so we went over them in no time but we had a third one right after and it was a big one. We took a break to eat lunch and get water at the base of the mountain before we started to climb up the 900 foot tall climb. We started up and soon found that it was not very steep so we got to the top in a little over half an hour which really surprised me because it was very hot out and I usually do not function well in hot weather. We took a break at the top and once again went right back down the other side again. At the bottom we came to a farm and the trail went right through the cattle fields so we had to cross over the fence using ladders again. We got to the other side of the field and found that there was a road that split the field in half so we had to climb up and other fences on both sides and then once again at the other side of the field...these fence stiles (ladders) are getting old. We got to the Holston River bridge and took a break along the river in the shade, from there we only had 5 miles until we got to the shelter so we were in no rush. We continued on and once again there was another fence to cross over...grrrrr...at least this field had cows in it unlike all the other ones. Once we crossed the fence on the other side we crossed a road and found trail magic on the other side; there was only one soda left so we split it up between the four of us and continued on up the last climb before the shelter. This climb seemed to take forever because we were all tired and going slow but we finally got to the top and started down to the shelter. We got there at around 5:45pm and found that Runner, Lime Green, Dakota Dan, Yard Stick and a few others had already beat us. There was room for three people in the shelter so Blue Fox offered to tent so Big Sky, Medacine Man and I took the last three spots. We got ready for bed, got our water and ate our supper and by then it was starting to get dark and Bird Man had not showed up yet so we figurrd he had stopped at one of the camp sites. But right as we were about to get in bed Bird Man showed up and quickly set up his tent before it got too dark out to see. Tonight is going to be a hot night and there are some thunder storms around because we can see lightning lighting up the sky but can't hear the thunder, hope it stays away...night all.