Date: 2012-03-30
From: Buena Vista

To: Bluff Mountain 
Miles today: 14.0

We woke up bright and early with the sun like all the other days, but mom wasn¢t in a hurry to get out of town due to the post office not being open yet. The park started to get livelier the longer we hanged around which put mom a little off easy as she knew she didn¢t pay to camp as there was no one to pay. At the post office mom tied me up outside while she ran inside to get the package, all the locals love to walk and pet me (I don¢t mind.) When she got out she opened up the large priority box and feed me my same old high calorie dog food. She then decided to head over to the library and check her e-mail (once again leaving me outside.) When she came back out she brought the librarian who fell in love with me. We then went over to the uncorked wine shop where I was allowed inside, I felt special that I could go inside this store ? The owner was really nice and talked to us about the trail and called his wife to provide a ride back to the trailhead along with a short stop at the hardies. Once getting to the trail head we were faced with the two problem dogs once again, this time the one dog that wasn¢t there last time was there and needless to say he wasn¢t very friendly and I had a hard time listening to mom. We started to head down the trail and found one of the dogs following us¢¦mom was already frustrated at these dogs and really didn¢t want to turn around and bring him back home AGAIN. She decided to stop walking turn around and tell the dog to go home and pointed up trail, he wasn¢t the best listening dog but after awhile he did stop following and hopefully walked home. The hike today was nice, we saw a few small waterfalls, and well I was thirsty and went off trail to get water as I didn¢t know how far down trail the creek crossing was going to be. We made it to the first shelter in good time, we decided to not stop but just keep walking to the next shelter for the night. Once we got to PunchBowl shelter we noticed a large torn up fully packed external frame pack, with no one around by it. Mom has learned to check out the shelter before staying the night, which I¢m glad she did. Looking at this pack she noticed it wasn¢t a proper Thru- Hiker pack but more of a trail hobo pack (you learn the difference throughout time.) Our attention was drown towards a younger aged man walking down the hill with fire wood in his hand, and was cotton and flannel clothing. He introduced himself as Cody Coyote, and informed me that he hitched up the Blue Ridge parkway today and planning on doing the something tomorrow because of a twisted ankle. I also learned that he enjoys Hot springs and stayed a couple weeks there by the river and can¢t wait to get to Waynesboro. Mom asked him if he knew where the water was at the shelter, hoping it wasn¢t the stagnate pond in view of the shelter. After getting water above the pond she decided to keep hiking south away from the shelter for mine and her safety. We made it to the top of Bluff Mountain where it was windy and cold but blessed us with a great view and awesome sunset. -expect your dog to be loved on and pet by everyone you meet, you need to make sure your dog is friendly and does not bite.-