Date: 2005-06-09
From: C&O Canal Towpath (east junction)

To: Pine Knob Shelter
Miles today: 20.1
Weather: scattered clouds

Last night passed without incident, we did not get arrested, flooded out, or shot. It was hot as hell. I had to pull half my tarp back because I was sweating. I awoke this morning to find that some sort of strange bug had crawled all over the mesh on my tent. They molted and left their empty shells clinging to the no-see-em mesh. We packed and got the hell out of there. We went up to the road and Mike Smith, OC1's friend, showed up to take us to Cracker Barrel. His girlfriend, Patsy, met us there. We had a wonderful breakfast. I had the Cracker Barrel Sampler, which had a little bit of everything on it. Albert had this ridiculous plate of blackberry pancake things. We went over to Patsy's house and then back to the Trail head where the AT separates from the C&O Canal Towpath. We walked up to the Weaverton Cliffs. The uphill was alot easier than I recall it being. I did a good job walking up, although the breakfast and 3 additional downtown meals probably helped out. We walked over to the Ed Garvey Shelter, we stopped there and met A.J. coming out. There was another guy there, who I met for the first time, named Unknown. He had just taken a week off and was getting back on the Trail. We are now walking to a campground for Pepsis. This is turning into a 'Will Walk for Food' Charity!3:00We walked to the Gathland State Park to get some Cokes. It was there that I realized that we were coming up to the 'Hiker/Biker-Trash' bar off the I-70 called the Dogpatch Tavern. It's a local biker hang out and also a good stop for hikers. It's an unusual place, hikers are very much welcome there. I stopped there last time, and it was pretty cool. The important thing is, not only do they have food there, but you also have the opportunity to have a Long Island Iced Tea. That immediately made it possible for us to do a 21 mile day today. I became inpatient and started running like hell ahead of everyone else. I passed the first shelter and kept on going. I'm about to aproach the Dahlgren Back Pack Campground, where I plan on taking a quick stop and maybe take a shower. Hopefully they will catch up to me. It's a good running day. I think it's all the food we have been having for the last 3 days and the Cokes in between. Aside from that, we ARE supposed be walking through the wilderness....The past 10 days or so, especially the ones at lower elevations, have been extremely fragrant. There have been some wonderful smells. OC1 says that the extremely sweet smells are honeysuckles and wild roses. There's all kinds of flowers blooming around, the mountain laurel is in bloom in several places. Needless to say, it's been fragrant. The poison ivy is also in full growing season. It's just hanging and clinging everywhere. Some of it is so big that it's no longer vines or bushes, it's actually poison ivy TREES with branches as big as my arm, it's amazing! I'm hoping to take a shower because I smell like a wet dog. We are going to the Dogpatch to eat and I think we are going to hit the shelter after that.Later....I did make it to the shower. I had to go to the women's bathroom because the men's shower was occupied. I got in with all my clothes on, got good and wet, soaped up all of my clothes, took them off, scrubbed them down, then scrubbed myself down. Generally did a good cleaning. By that time, Vern and Albert got there and did a little washing up too. Then we started a serious run to get down to the Dogpatch Tavern on US 40 and I 70. We really put the heat on. Not only because we were running for food, but there were also thunderstorms in the distance. It sounded like we were running right into them. We wanted to make sure we were sitting at the bar eating and watching the rain coming down and not be in it. We made it there at about 5:20. A.J. was not far behind us, he had talked himself into going as well. The 4 of us sat and ate very well. It's a very interesting place. When we got there, there were already some locals there who had stopped in for their after work beers and snacks. There were not many motorcycles there this time, but as we were walking towards it, some of the customers there yelled out, "Here comes the Hiker Trash!" Which was exactly the reception that I wanted. I ordered a bunch of appetizers and they guys ordered hamburgers. I had cheese sticks, chicken wings, fried mushrooms, cheeseburgers, and jalepeno poppers. I asked the waitress, who also happened to be the bar maid, if she had any interest in making me a Long Island Iced Tea. According to her, not only could she make them, but she was the best there was at it and was willing to prove it. She did an excellent job. I paid her handsomely for it. She was getting off shift so, I made sure she made me another one before she left. We didn't get out of there until almost 7 o'clock. We got to the Pine Knob Shelter before dark. I had to set my tent up right in the middle of the Trail because it was the only flat spot I could find. There were a couple of people here already. The local Ridge Runner, who covers all of Maryland, a very nice guy who we spoke to for a while. Also a man who was with his son, he takes his son out on the AT a couple of weeks at a time. He's a philosophy teacher, an interesting guy who reminds me of my friend Eddie. He showed me his food bag which is larger and weighs twice as much as my entire backpack. He says that's 5 days worth of food. We had a good laugh at that.Albert's water pump has been taking a dump on his, so we worked on it, lubricated it, and it seems to be working just great again. It's been a good day. Only 68 miles to OC1's house. It looks like we will do 22 miles tomorrow. Albert and I are trying to convince OC1 that we can run all the way to Pen Mar Park and eat pizza at Rocky's Pizza and still get out to the shelter even though it would be a 3 mile walk on the road if we didn't get picked up. Sometimes you have to pay the price for eating well. Tomorrow might be one of those days.That's it for today.