Date: 2005-04-30
From: War Spur Shelter

To: Sarver Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 12.2
Weather: light rain

Another late start today, big suprise there. After hiking for just a short time, we met Purple Rose and Zig Zag once again, heading south. Today would be the last day that we would see them, as they are heading home tomorrow. We started the day with a long, hard uphill. The weather this morning was not pleasant at all. While the overcast was welcome, the humidity was not. The air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I was soaked in no time. We met a huge group of elderly people in the morning, just out for a day hike. We met a guy out for a day also, from Virginia Tech, who we walked with for a while. He was all interested in thru hiking, and said he wanted to do one in the next year or two, so we told him all there was to know (what we knew anyway). Took a short lunch break at Laurel Creek Shelter and then bid farewell to the college guy. Selena was walking very fast today, and got some distance ahead of us. Stick and I were craving some town food, so we decided that we would hitch in to town at the road coming up. Right before the road, we had to walk through a few cow pastures. Stick was probably about 200-300 yards ahead of me. He gets to the road, turns around and yells, "are your feet wet yet?" I had no idea why he was asking this. I kept walking fast toward him and replied, "NO, WHY DO YOU...OH CRAP!!!", stopping in mid sentence, because the feild instantly turned to a marsh and I sunk in past my ankles. At the road, there was a town going each way. No cars were passing, but we really wanted something to eat, so we each stood on either side of the road hitching hoping we'd get a ride to one town or the other. Finally, just as we were going to give up, a lady in a big truck pulls up, asks "which way are you headed?" We just simply replied, "whichever way you are". She told us that she was going to go drop off her daughters and groceries at home and would come back and take us where ever we wanted to go!After about thirty minutes, Jill came back and offered to take us all the way into the big town for some Wendy's. We told her that she didn't have to do that and the general store just a few miles up the road would suffice. In hindsite, we should have taken her up on the offer. But things were great at the general store. We loaded up on snacks and drinks while Jill waited to take us back to the trail. She offered for us to stay at her barn that night, but we wanted to make a few more miles today since we had had several low mile days in a row. We thanked her and were back on our way.It was all uphill to the shelter. Finally making it, completely exausted, we learned that it was .3 miles off the trail down a VERY STEEP side trail. But it was definately worth it. Sarver Hollow Shelter was probably one of the nicest shelters on the trail, next Partnership and Fontana. We each packed out some goodies for the night and really chowed down. Someone had left a book of Calvin and Hobbes comics, so I busied myself with that for most of the evening, stopping to play a few games of rummy with a deck of cards that Stick has been carrying forever that we hardly use. Later on, a section hiker came in by the name of Padre. He is a Lutheran pastor from New York. We talked with him the rest of the evening, and invited us to stay with him once we reached New York. On my way back from the privy, I thought I would be slick and hop across some logs that were laying on the ground, cut from some shelter renovations probably. Well, that didn't end well. One of them was loose and slid out from under me. It was like something from a While E. Cayote cartoon, like I slipped on a banana peel. My feet went like six feet in the air and I landed square on my back! Knocked the wind right out of me. Of course Stick thought it was the funniest thing in the world. I told him, after I caught my breath, that he probably wouldn't think it would be so funny if he had to carry my huge self out of here! Off to bed early tonight, it is hard to believe that tomorrow, we will have been out here for two months.