Date: 2006-10-17
From: thomas knob shelter

To: old orchard shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: moderate rain

======2003====== saturday, april 5, day 43i can¢t BELIEVE sometimes how GOOD our Creator is to us!.....let me explain:this a.m. couldn¢t have started off more dreary.....the wind at thomas knob HOWLED all night and when we woke to the first light, it was all foggy and gray....it had rained during the night and now it was beginning to rain again...the only cheerful thing seemed to be the snowbird that kept coming to the threshold of the shelter to eat....(i know it¢s a major ¢no-no¢, but i couldn¢t resist finally putting out a few crumbs of oatmeal for HER breakfast, too!)....then i finally got up enough nerve to head back down the rocky path to the privy (which killeen said on this windy morning might need a SEATBELT!)....no sooner than i had sat down, a flash of lightening emblazoned the mist around me!...thunder followed and i thought, ¢oh dear!....i¢m not gonna get back up to the shelter before this storm lets loose!¢....but, thank heaven, i did manage to do so.....poor killeen wasn¢t so fortunate....he got pretty wet on his return trip....but we managed to get back all snuggled in comfortably..... ¢no need to try and go out in this kind of weather¢, we thought......so i cooked breakfast (we usually just eat it cold)*....but the warm oatmeal helped to cheer us and we chatted with another hiker, bill, as we ate....at last, however, we realized we could put off hiking no longer (i was prayin¢ under my breath, ¢Lord, help us in this awful weather not to get hypothermia or whatever!)....so we packed up, took a couple of steps out the door and like magic!....the rain stopped!....by the time we had rounded the corner about 100 yards away, the sun was trying to come out! THANK YOU, LORD!and THEN!....we saw the ponies!....not JUST the ponies, but a mare and her colt!...couldn¢t have been more than a few days old!...so CUTE!....and i got to take some pictures, of course....and THEN!...the walk this mornin¢ was unbelievable!.....too much for mortal eyes!....we walked along across many bald-type areas that were open and grassy, but also very rocky....in fact, huge peaked boulders often jutted up out of the soft golden grass along the trail which led us through ¢gardens¢ of rhododendron and other shrubs, trees and firs (or spruce?....i GOTTA learn the difference!).....we wrestled a bit with the rocks and wind and many puddles (the trail was more like a trickling branch), but everything was so breathtaking we didn¢t really care....the stormy clouds were rolling out and the deep blue sky and brilliant morning sun was shining through...the sky was doing ¢masterful¢ things!.....and all the charcoal colored rocks, still wet from the rain, were glistening so brightly that it looked like snow!.....all was clean and wet and clear and beautiful!.....and oh!....the AIR!...it was heavenly!...to me, it had the slight scent of something akin to roses*....the scent seemed to follow us all morning long!....(¢air freshener¢ for smelly hikers!)we were certain that things couldn¢t have gotten any better, but then we came to the grayson highlands!....the terrain was very ¢western¢ or montana-like with jagged rockies-sort-of peaks in the distance ..... grassy rolling hills were dotted with all kinds of boulder-hugging shrubs....sometimes there were so many stones scattered about that it looked like monuments in a graveyard! (the ¢feel¢, however, was anything but ¢dead¢!).....it went on for miles like this and we thought, ¢who needs scotland or ireland when you¢ve got THIS?!!¢.....it was all more wonderful than i can do justice to with pen and paper........from the perfectly shaped ¢christmas¢ trees at our fingertips to the gently rolling, rocky hills, to the sharply ascending majestic peaks, to the soft purple mountains rolling away into the distance!....all of it was gorgeous!.....indescribable!...(hope my pictures turn out well enough for even just a hint of what our eyes beheld this day!)....well... it was only 11 miles for us today, but between the rock-hopping and the relentless wind, i¢m pooped!....but i¢m looking forward to the Lord¢s Day tomorrow.... (hope we can do communion again).....we are staying tonight under our tarp in an old apple orchard, hoping not to get rained on....we were afraid the old shelter here wouldn¢t actually BE much shelter!...apparently, a lot of other folks tenting here had the same fear.... we have set up over here by ourselves a bit, away from their ¢camp¢....seems like the whole world was out for a springtime stroll on the highlands today!.....i enjoyed singing* as i walked down the trail this afternoon..... ¢~ ~ ~ what wondrous love is this oh my soul oh my soul! ~ ~ ~¢......truly, our Creator has blessed us with His wondrous love through the beautiful day He has given!......and oh.....since we got in here early, i cooked twice!....once for tamale casserole and again a little later for dessert!....i¢ve discovered that rehydrating (by boiling) our dried cakes makes a wonderful, warm ¢pudding¢!...yum!======2006====== ¢Lord¢s Day¢, march 26, day 43 (16.5 miles from a stealth camp in crawfish valley to chestnut knob shelter)well, i hardly know where to begin......last night turned out to be one of the best night¢s sleep we¢ve had!*....soft, quiet snow falling....fresh, brisk air.....and us, all snuggled down into our snowy little ¢nest¢....i thought, ¢this must be how a rabbit or a fox feels on a cold, wintry night!¢.....we were warm, though and felt refreshed this a.m. .....it was a little difficult with both of us getting all packed up under the tarp, but we did it!....it was another snowy day today.....i don¢t know if i¢ve mentioned it, but we left damascus with snow and have continued with snow and cold all week!.....coming up to chestnut knob, the snow really got deep (8 inches)....we wondered if it might end up bein¢ a similar ordeal to the one we experienced in ¢03 (VERY DIFFICULT!)....because it had already begun to snow when we reached the BOTTOM of lynn creek mtn., we wondered what the TOP might look like!.....but when we got up here the Lord did one of His amazing ¢clear-away-the-skies¢ things and we had some sunshine and views and ¢painterly¢ clouds!...i had asked if He were willing to please keep any extra snow ¢at bay¢, and at one point we were astonished to see just that!...from the top of the ridge, we could see snow squalls on either side of us pummeling the distant peaks!....but where we were the sun was shining!......still it was cold and we became fairly tired trying to hike through the deep snow (after difficult climbs during the day).... right now, outside these 4 (yes 4!) walls, the wind is STILL howling!....guess its blowin¢ out the bad weather.....Father...thank you for all you¢ve done for us....please help us to get to an agreeable campsite tomorrow and PLEASE let this cold, snowy weather begin to abate.....we really need your help on this......i¢d ask Your blessings as well on this fellow, ¢buckeye¢, who shares his ¢home¢ with us here tonight....*NOTES/OBSERVATIONS/COMPARISONS-----*cold breakfast....in ¢03 we had granola, cereal or muesli (among the other usual poptarts and such)....the nice thing about muesli or granola was that it could also be cooked for a hot breakfast if you got held up in a shelter somewhere to wait out really bad weather...otherwise we just ate our breakfast by adding water directly to our gallon ziplock which contained one of the above breakfast foods (combined with soy milk powder, sugar, fruit, nuts and whatever else we liked.....we¢ve even been known to add chocolate!) i think paw-ee (aka: killeen or charlie) liked the different ¢flavored granolas we had best, while i really loved the muesli!....our ¢recipe¢ included rolled oats, sliced almonds, dried blueberries, milk, dates, and a little sugar and salt.....it was best soaked overnight , or, for 30 minutes or so in the morning (while we packed)...the soaking helped to soften the oats a little and helped the blueberries to more resemble ¢fresh¢)....whenever we cooked our muesli, it tasted a lot like blueberry cobbler..............in ¢06, i got a REAL good deal on some generic, special-k type cereal that included freeze-dried strawberries!....i recommend this highly!....the large sliced berries really livened up our breakfast! (anyone who¢s done much long-distance hiking knows how much you can CRAVE anything out on the trail that even resembles FRESH fruit or veggies....that¢s why hiking in maine in august is a treat...BLUEBERRIES!)...so to have these ¢almost-fresh¢ strawberries out in the middle of nowhere was a real ¢pick-me-up¢.....and, of course, to the cereal, we also added milk, sugar, nuts and ¢grapenuts¢ cereal (for extra protein and crunch)......my daughter, carli, kept all these breakfast packs in the freezer until ready to ship to us....that way everything stayed fresh (no rancid nuts or milk)....i think i¢ve already mentioned how we enjoyed our large, sturdy gingerbread, too, in ¢06.....maybe i¢ll post the recipe on trail journals....* the scent of roses on grayson highlands....there are no roses up there....not at that time of the year anyway......there may have been arbutus, however, and it is VERY sweetly scented....* singing.........out on the trail you can sing to your hearts content!...even if you can¢t carry a tune in a bucket!....you can belt out a tune at the top of your lungs if you¢re so inclined (and not afraid to break the often magical silence of the forest)....i remember once last year (i think it was somewhere in new york), walkin¢ along one morning and hearing a bold and full melody come barreling out of the woods.....i imagined it was the ancient wailings of some tribal warrior at prayer in the Divine Light of dawn.......turned out it was just ¢helium¢ jammin¢ on a little rock¢n¢roll for his dog ¢freckles¢.....but it was his free and happy singing, though, that delighted and reminded me of the great blessing of freedom that consumes anyone who hikes the trail.....* one of our best nights of sleep....(on the snowy ground in crawfish valley)....paw actually informed me later, that though it may have been a good night for me, he had experienced a little ¢wooziness¢ the next morning, which, he thought was from a not-so-great night TRYING to sleep on uneven ground!....oh well....so much for communication in marriage.....