Date: 2004-04-30
From: laurel creek shelter

To: audie murphy memorial
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: overcast clouds

today rocked. well, except for the raspberry on my lower back caused by my packbelt pressing against my sweaty kilt waistband. ouch.this morning hippie and i set out at 7:30 across some pastures. the hiking was easy, the tunes on the radio were great, and the scenes of the rolling fields were awesome. i grabbed a lot of pictures of the vistas and the cows today.we climbed 1300 feet to sarver hollow shelter were i stopped for water. the water is .3 miles down a blue blaze trail. hippie said she'd watch my pack as i got water for both of us. what a gal. :P that whole trip plus checking the shelter register took 30 minutes. from there the trail was rocky and gentle stepping was needed over some of the larger stones. after days and days of fast travel it seemed unreal to slow down to 2 mph.lunch came late (2:00) at niday shelter. we took and hour off to eat and relax. i put my feet in the stream. ahhh. it felt wonderful since they were in pain when i took my shoes off. i also have a new blister on each heel -- pesky ones that are below a callus so they are hard to drain.lunch and the break refreshed me and my legs and knees were set to go. hippie wasn't too thrilled to do the next section. she said she felt tired. what was driving us onward, besides self-ridicule for a low-mileage day, was hippie being nearly out of food and fuel, and an easier hike into four pines hostel tomorrow. we marched on. i took the lead on the uphill and pretty much ran up the mountain. i hadn't felt this much energy since georgia. the radio was playing all these old-school hard rock tunes were and my rhythm was constant for the 2 hour climb. i was fired up.hippie joined me at the top and we made a makesift camp near the audie murphy memorial. (there's no water up here so we had to hump 3-4 liters a piece.)dinner was made with plenty of sunlight remaining. hippie took a nap and i retired to my tent to type this journal entry. the silence was broken when hippie woke and yelled from her tent, "dharma, i'm hungry". hippie has no food left except for tomorrow's breakfast. i went through my remaining snacks and got a pack of smokehouse cheddar crackers. we popped our heads out of our tents and i threw them over to her."thanks dharma", and the crackers were gone in, like, 60 seconds. seems the hiker hunger has been starting to take hold of northbounders in VA. condor the other night was a prime example. he just wouldn't stop eating and has found himself resupplying days before he planned to. i have not upped my food intake, except for carrying gatorade and the number of candy bars i have, since springer. i don't know why this happens. we're still doing the same activity that we've been doing for 2 months. maybe some were always undereating and are now faced with matching their caloric needs. maybe the springtime weather triggers something. i don't know... all i know is i don't want to carry more food weight. my bag is giant as it is. it's been 45-50 the past two nights and that¢s great for me and my western mountaineering 40* bag. just that first night out of pearisburg was i chilly. tonight looks like it will be 50-55, possibly some rain later.i'll do a little stretching and off to bed.