Date: 2006-05-25
From: One mile N of Wise Shelter, Va.

To: Half a mile N of Dickey Gap, Va
Miles today: 16.3

I slept really well last night. It was warmer out and I slept nice and warm for a change. I woke up at 5am, but just layed there listening to the wind. There must be some weather coming in because it's very windy out this morning. I brewed my Startbuck's about 7am and ate a couple fruit pies. We were all packed up and walking at 9am. I saw a few short horses off in the distance as we were coming into the Scales. I could see 3 people at the Scales and 1 hiker almost there. I was able to tell from the top of Stone Mountain that the 3 were the Wanderers and the lone hiker was Old Reb. When we got down to the Scales, Shortcut said that I have really good eyes because I was right about who was there.I cheated, it was a lucky guess. Ha!!! :-))) I talked to the Wanderers for a while, then got some water and hiked on. We climbed up Pine Mountain at 4,960 foot elevation next. It was a very windy morning, probably blowing at 30 to 35 mph up on the ridge. It started raining at 10:30 and rained litely for about 45 minutes.I was glad it didn't rain any harder because with the wind, it would have been chilly out. When we got to Old Orchard Shelter, we stopped for a lunch break.I signed the register and ate the last of my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, then went down to the spring for some water.Someone had stuck a pipe in the spring and it was flowing good and was very cold. We walked all the way down to Fox Creek and crossed Va 603 before starting the 900 foot climb up Hurricane Mtn.The sun had come out and it was warm and humid. There was a couple more garbage cans at Va 603 and they had Chief's name on them. I guess he's more famous than I thought he was. ;-))) We walked by Huricane Mtn Shelter without stopping.I'm not sure where the guide book is wrong, but I noticed it last year too. The summit of Hurricane Mountain is only .2 miles from the shelter acording to the guide.I would say it is more like .8 miles from the summit. We stopped and took a short break about half a mile later, but the bugs chased us off. I found a nice little noisy stream and sat down and cooked dinner. It was about 4:45pm.I've been getting too full at dinner lately, so Shortcut and I shared a Mountain House lasagna. We were walking along about 20 minutes after dinner and spotted one lone turkey that didn't want to wait around too long.She didn't fly, but she took off running fast up the mountain. I saw the first bear scat that I've seen in a while along the trail. I got to Comers Creek and took a bandana bath while I was enjoying the water fall.Shortcut caught up to me just as I was finishing up.I put my shoes back on and we walked on. A little north of Comers Creek, we started getting back into some rhododendrons that were in full bloom. There was also some yellow and some orange azaleas scattered about the side of the mountain.I saw a little patch of mountain laurel that was just about ready to bloom too. I've taken so many photos since Trail Days that I filled up a 256 mgb memory card. We walked by Dickey Gap and climbed another 1/2 mile before I found a nice soft, flat spot to set up the tent tonight. When I packed up this morning, I left the tent out so Shortcut could carry it today. I'm conditioning her for the trail. ;-)))