Date: 2016-03-01
From: Campbell Shelter

To: Pickle Branch Shelter
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Got going pretty quickly for me, but didn't really have much hope of getting to McAfee's Knob for sunrise, even tho it was only 34 mile. Stayed there a little while & took some pictures. No one else around, tho it is a much-used place, wth lots of extra trails all over the rocky area. I know the maintainers are concerned about that, but they could help by blazing the AT better, especially SOBO.There were 2 shelters in the next 3 miles; I saw a group at the first one. I did 14 hour of trail work on the way down to VA 311, which goes to Catawba, & met only one there person on the way down; so I was surprised to see a lot of cars at the trailhead. Since I wanted to get some things, including a fuel canister, at the little store there, I started down the road. It didn't look good for hitchhiking ¢ very little shoulder & lots of curves. It didn't feel familiar from my past hikes, but I couldn't figure out why.Suddenly, a young woman was calling to me from the parking area, offering me a ride. Her trail name was "Lady", she lived in the area & was out for a day-hike up to McAfee's Knob, & had made it this far on a NOBO thru-hike that she hoped to finish this Spring. She wanted to provide some "trail magic" by helping hikers. So she gave me a ride down the hill, where the road kept going in a way that was totally unfamiliar [It was supposed to be 0.3 mile to an intersection, then 0.1 mile to left]. We went back up the hill while I figured out that I had gotten off at the wrong place. But she figured out that it was only a few minutes by car [6 trail miles!]; so we turned around & went back several miles farther to the store. I got my stuff plus a bottle of water for her, & she took me back so that she could finally get going on her hike. It was very nice, & I hope she gets to complete the AT.Only one problem. With my hurry to get done at the store quickly, I forgot that one of the things I had wanted to do there was to charge up my phone. I regretted not doing that because I had trouble with my charger the next couple of days & so could take very few pictures. Much of the rest of the day was fairly easy except for the climb up to Dragon's Tooth. I hadn't remembered how rocky it was. Last time, I was going down it & motivated to stay up with some slack-packers; so I wasn't conscious of how much rock-climbing there was. This time, I got absorbed in taking pictures of the rocky Trail ¢ by the time I got to the top & down the side trail to the "tooth", I had no power left to take another picture. A group of about 7 young women & one man passed me near the top. From there, it was generally downhill over a bunch of little knobs. Similar terrain to yesterday evening except much better marked. As it got dark, the Trail curved around in directions I didn't expect, frequently with town lights on each side of the ridge. At what seemed to be the end of the ridge, there began a series of long switchbacks. At each one, I thought, surely this must be the bottom. But it wasn't. I hadn't been to Pickle Branch Shelter before & finally figured out why. The sign said "shelter 12 mile". Usually I don't stop at shelters that far off the trail, & I probably could have found a campsite somewhere along there, but I felt I needed to make it to the shelter because there would be water there. You see, the other thing I had forgotten at the Catawba store was to fill my water bottles!It was very dark by the time I got to the shelter, & there was no obvious sign of water [no one else around, of course]; so I set up there 7 went to sleep.