Date: 2003-06-09
From: Molly & Dentons Shelter

To: The Rollercoaster
Miles today: 20.0

So, I did get into the Molly&Denton Shelter at about 6:30 last night. It was a beautiful shelter. A really nice shelter. Very new. You could tell it had just recently been built out of really good wood. It had a huge porch on it with a picnic table on it. You could probably sleep 15 people in it and you could probably have party for 30 on the porch. Big porch. Then, it had a separate pavilion as well with a picnic table under it that you were supposed to go and cook under. I don¢t know where the water was being piped from because there was never really any distance¢¦but it had water piped up into the sink. You could get the water out of the sink and a shower. Although, it was cold water and I didn¢t need a shower anyway. Very cool little set up there. When I walked up to the shelter there was Ultreya and Amble. Amble was also an elderly, not elderly, older man who I just found out was of German dissent. Who is German. He is German but he¢s been in this country for 30 years or so. Really nice guy with a sense of humor. He had a bottle of Canadian Rye Whiskey and I figured ¢¦between the fact that it was just those two guys, who were very easy going and very easy to hang out with and sleep in a shelter with and the Canadian Rye Whiskey and the great shelter that I wasn¢t going to continue on any further that night. So, I hung out. Got all decked out to sleep. I did not have a sleeping bag. I¢d left my sleeping bag intentionally at Mark and Jan¢s house. So, I put all my clothes on and pulled out my little therma rest and was¢¦.for the most part¢¦.fairly comfortable. I got a little chilly pretty close to the morning which turned out to be in my favor because it helped to wake me up earlier than I would have probably if I was comfortable and toasty warm. So, anyway, Amble was more than happy to share his bottle of Canadian Rye Whiskey with myself and Ultreya. Ultreya is Serge. So, he passed it around a couple of times and I made some hot chocolate. Made a hot toddy with the hot chocolate and the Canadian Whiskey. We chatted for quite awhile. Hung out. It was very early. 6:30 at this time of the year is very early. You have several hours of daylight and so we hung out. I pulled out the digital camera and I took some pictures of everybody. Put on the self timer and took a couple pictures with me in the picture holding up the bottle of Canadian Rye Whiskey pretending to drink right out of the bottle. Amble goes to sleep and he goes to sleep immediately. He snores very lightly. Same with Serge. They both sacked out pretty fast. Well before I got all set to go. They were both snoozing away when I finally got settled in. I put my radio on. Turned it on full blast. Somewhere around midnight I turned it off and put it away. It was¢¦at that point..I noticed that it was raining outside. I went to the bathroom¢¦to go pee and have a cigarette and it was lightening pretty darn well. Lighting up everything. But, by morning the sky was absolutely blue and not a cloud. So, that was perfect. A good rain in the middle of the night while you¢re sleeping is better than a good rain in the middle of the day when you¢re walking. I was pretty well, fully wide awake by probably 5 o¢clock. Nowadays, the sun seems to be come up very early. It comes up at 5:15 or so. So, at 5:30 I got up and got my food bag and started messing around. Which is probably unusual¢¦because Amble and Ultreya both have a good reputation for being the first ones up. Usually Amble is up early. But I managed to get up before both of them and I think I surprised them. Then they got up as well and packed pretty quickly. I made some mashed potatoes for breakfast which I did not want to eat. It tasted like terrible. So, I ate what I could and Serge gave me some spices out of his bag which helped the potatoes pretty well. So, I ate a little bit more and finally dumped them out in the bushes, washed the dishes out and packed everything up and was walking by 6:43. 6:43 I know because I looked at the watch, the clock. Pretty well hauled it. I was actually out of the woods and waiting at the most office at 10 minutes till 8 after making a quick stop at the convenience store next to the post office in Linden for a cup of coffee. There really isn¢t much in Linden. There¢s a post office, a convenience store, there¢s a house across the street..but that¢s about it. Although, the traffic was pretty busy through there. There was nothing else to speak of, in terms of, commerce. I ended up spending a good two hours outside the post office packing and re-packing. I¢d gotten 3 boxes. Three separate boxes and was going to completely retool everything. Which I did. I switched to my smaller backpack and I switched to a smaller sleeping bag and a whole group of other things¢¦and managed to get the other box packed up, re-taped and sent parcel post to Cascade, MD. While I was in the middle of all that process, Amble drove up. He¢d walked out of the woods where his friends had been waiting for him and had driven him over. He was looking for Serge who he knew was in front of him but he never did see him. Turns out he was at the gas station next door getting food and beverages. Amble went off to eat with his buddies and Serge went off and got back on the trail and I finally finished all my stuff up. I ran next door to the gas station and got a few items¢¦.like an ice cream, a beer, this hamburger/hotdog thing which was hamburger meat rolled up to look like a hotdog..then you eat it on a hotdog bun. So, I loaded all that stuff up and then managed to catch two tile guys in a van just as they were leaving the store. I asked them for a ride and they were very agreeable with that. The only thing is..the trail was 1.2 miles away from the store and they managed to drive about 6 miles before I finally told them they had passed it up. So we had to turn around and they dropped me off. Once again, the trail was extremely muddy. I mean mud that you cannot avoid. Mud up to your ankles..that you¢d try and step on rocks but the rocks sink in the mud. Just this brown, red goop. Just unbelievably slimy. So anyway, I started hiking and caught up, within 2 hours, to Serge, who had left 45 minutes before I did. I passed him up once and then I stopped at the next shelter to just sign in. No, actually, I didn¢t catch him until after the first shelter. I got into the first shelter and was signing in and saw that he was already there. So, I went ahead and signed the register and left and passed him up shortly after that and dropped down to the next shelter which was¢¦can¢t remember the name¢¦I think the first one was Manassas Shelter, the second one was a weird ? one that Mark was telling me about. In that shelter register and in the shelter register at Manassas as well¢¦I noticed that Kumugwee and Peppermint Patty (the mother and son combination) had gotten back on the trail again. I guess he skipped a considerable portion because I knew they had quit at Damascus. But it was good to have them back on the trail again. They had also brought Kumugwee¢s sister and some other guy. So, there was a group of 4 of them travelling directly in front of me. I walked up for quite a while thinking that Serge was behind me and two hours later I once again come across him. He apparently had not stopped in the shelter and gone past me. I ended up passing him again. 5 minutes after I passed him up I came across this girl hiking by herself and who should it be but, once again, Tucson ¢¦it¢s very bizarre because I keep passing her up, going in opposite directions. This is like the 4th time now in a month and a half. Usually, she¢s either slack packing and I¢m going north or I¢m slack packing and she¢s going north. It¢s a surprise every time. It¢s like..¢What are you doing here?¢ So, we traded quick news as to who was on the trail in front and who was on the trail behind and all that stuff. This is the way the news travels on the AT. People pass stuff going in opposite directions and you generally get good information on other peoples workings within hundreds of miles in either direction of you. So, I passed her up and hiked down for quite a while. I was actually trying to haul it and try to catch up with Comugly and Peppermint Patty because I hadn¢t seen them in a long time and I wanted to say hello. But then I came across the road and there was a little sign there, I hadn¢t even read the book to realize¢¦.that there was Doc¢s BBQ 8/10¢s of a mile to the west and of course being in the frame of mind I am with food nowadays¢¦I immediately set upon going to Doc¢s BBQ to go get something to eat¢¦some food. Tried hitchhiking but it was a very busy road. No one was gonna stop and no one did stop. So, I hiked the whole way. 8/10¢s of a mile downhill to Doc¢s BBQ. I sat down and the lady was really nice. Got country fried chicken with rice and with succotash. Now I personally hate lima beans but this was very good. All of it was very good. Very plain and very good. I talked to her for a short time. She gave me two Bud Lights. I was very surprised that she was serving beer but she gave me two Bud Lights and then I got some more beer and packed it off figuring I was gonna do the trail magic thing by hauling it up to the shelter then I walked back up the road. Tried hitchhiking again. No one picked me up so I walked all the way back. Got back on the trail and started walking to the shelter which I could talk miles about because it was sucky hiking. Once again¢¦all in mud. These stream crossings just seem to go on forever because the stream is no longer 10 feet wide it¢s 50 yards wide from all the rain. So, I get up to the shelter and this girl goes ¢ There he is¢ and I said ¢Hello¢ figuring it was someone who knew me and it wasn¢t. There were like 40 teenage girls in this shelter and immediately one of them pipes up and says¢¦¢Yeah, your buddy was just here¢ and I said ¢Which buddy?¢ and she says ¢The older man said to look for you. That he was looking for you. He described you perfectly, so we knew who you were¢¦but he left about 12 hour ago¢. So, I knew Serge had been through there looking for me and decided the same thing that I did¢¦which was¢¦I was not about to stay in the area with 40 teenage girls. Just not built for that at this point. So, I turned around and hauled it for about 15 or 20 minute. Then I saw Serge. He¢d already set up his hammock on the side of the trail¢¦just at the very beginning of the Rollercoaster. The last sign said ¢You are now entering the Rollercoaster¢. Now the Rollercoaster¢¦that is a section of trail just entering into West Virginia ¢¦at the extreme north end of Virginia¢¦beginning of West Virginia¢¦and they were not able to get decent access to put the trail through. So, they had to put a wherever and there are like 10 descents in a 13 12 mile section. Ascents and descents that is. 500 or 600 feet..which will just kill us tomorrow going up and down and up and down. Anyway, I set up my hammock. I was very slow about the whole thing. My right knee is right now aching terribly. I don¢t know why. I must have hurt it today. Talked to Serge about a couple of different things. While we¢re sitting there talking he turns around and picks a tic up off his foreleg. That is really starting to bother me now because I really need to do a checkup to see if I have any tics on me or not because two times in three days I¢ve seen people pull tics off themselves and I¢m getting very concerned about that because I don¢t want to have tics on me and I do not want to take the chance of getting Lymes disease. While we were sitting there I was able to get cell phone reception. I tried calling Mark Z who is Mark Bowens buddy that is so expectantly waiting for me to drop in at his house. Got his answering machine. So, I called Mark and Jan¢s house. Talked to Mark. So, Serge ¢¦Ultreya that is¢¦is going to be going with me to Marks house tomorrow and it¢s going to turn out to be a much harder hike than I had originally anticipated because not only do we have to do the Rollercoaster tomorrow¢¦starting first thing in the morning¢¦but it¢s going to be in excess of 20 miles just to get there. Where I had thought we just gonna hike past Snickers Gap for a short distance which would have been 11 miles. So, it¢s turned into quite a hike for tomorrow. I got into bed here early and I didn¢t bring the radio in because I¢m gonna actually try and sleep soundly and deeply and rest up as much as I can because it¢s gonna be hard to run tomorrow and I want to get there before it gets dark. Somehow or another because Ultreya runs( when I say runs it means walk), he will probably get there considerably after I do so I told him regardless of what happens¢¦even if I get there after he does¢¦.if worse comes to worse¢¦I¢ll go down and find Mark Z¢s house and then get back on the trail and wait for him so he¢d be assured to come to the same place because he..on my advice and faith¢¦has decided he is going to skip the Berry? Shelter which he was originally intending to go to and go to Marks house with me instead. So anyway¢¦Monday, June 9th was officially 20 miles¢¦probably more like 22¢¦but officially 20. From Molly & Dentons Shelter to the Rollercoaster.