Date: 2008-04-30
From: Bearfence Mnt. Hut

To: Pass Mnt. Hut
Miles today: 26.8

Woke up at 6:30a this morning to the beautiful sounds of birds chirping and the crisp feeling of spring on my skin. This may sound like sarcasm, but I mean it in all sincerity. As we were going through the rotation of our morning ritual, Stovie, Toddy Bear, Shepherd and I--Yeti was using the Privy--witnessed 3 does near our camp eating. Well, that's not the only thing they did. One of those does decided to "squat" and pee in our water source! What?!? I gathered two things from this experience: 1) I'm glad I don't have to gather water from this water source and 2) I now know how a doe uses the bathroom! Since this was our biggest day in a while, 26.8 miles, we thought that we should hit the trail hard and soon. Well, we began walking--Toddy Bear, Yeti, Stovie, Shepherd and me--and eventually began climbing up Hazeltop Mnt. It wasn't that bad of a climb either. As we were climbing to the top, however, we saw 2 Latinos and 1 Latina walking down towards us and she asked, "if we continue down this way, where will it take us?" Remembering a story the General had told me, I responded with, " Georgia if you keep walking!" It would have been more dramatic had I just walked off, but we didn't. After my smart remark, and the girl rolling her eyes at me, we continued walking. Well, when we finally reached the Lewis Creek Rd, we walked the 0.3 mile side trail to the Big Meadows Wayside and saw 6 deer in a field--this brought my daily total up to 12. At the wayside, we all got pretty excited about getting to eat one of those famous Blackberry shakes and a [veggie] Burger with Fries....hmm, we arrived at 10:35a and had all of our [food] dreams shattered. Appearantly, they don't start serving lunch until 11p and they only make shakes on the weekends!!! Are you kidding me? Oh well, at least we still have a chance of getting one from the Elkwallow wayside. We ordered breakfast and I got the old Virginian, but should have opted for the Healthy Hiker because the Virginian came with a BIG piece of ham and I don't eat ham!! When the food did arrive, we were all pretty upset. Not only did we not get our shakes, burgers, or fries, but the food was served cold and unsatisfying for the price!!! I then went to the store to buy some supplemental food with Shepherd, who was resupplying. I picked out 3 bags of cookies and 2 ice cream bars. While in line to pay, some woman looked at Shepherd and me and asked, "are you boys hiking or biking?" We told her that we were hiking and she asked, "How long you been out? Couple days?" Well, we informed her about what we were doing and how long we had been out. When she heard this, she immediately began asking the typical questions about resupply, safety, equipment, shelters, and Privys. We also told her about how much damage we do to AYCE Buffets. The funniest thing I heard her say was her response, "and I thought I was roughing it in my RV!?!" While using the flushable privy, the nice lady had given Shepherd some Boosts from her fridge for us to drink. After "slamming" my Boost, we hit the trail again. By this time, it was noon and we still had 19.7 miles to go...bad planning, eh? As we were descending down past the Big Meadows Campground, we ran into a lot of elderly people out on a stroll. We all stopped, less Stovie because he had to drop a 2-sie and decided to push on to the shelter, and chatted with two elderly couples. When we left them, we rushed on to the Rock Springs Hut, but we didn't see Stovie or an entry telling us of his location. When he did arrive, we asked him where he had been and he told us that, "I had to cat hole it because I was close to "Toddy-Bearing" it (I know you all remember what pulling a "Toddy Bear" is, right?) ...Photo Finish!!"When we got back on the trail, Shepherd took point and I decided to follow behind him. While he and I walked, I got a chance to better know him by learning about his wife Amee and he asked me a pretty "heavy" question to think about. I enjoyed that Shepherd trusted me enough to disclose this personal information...it gave me a better understanding of who he is and made me re-evaluate some things. When we reached the Horse stables, we ate lunch at the picnic table and watched some people riding a horse. We then pushed on to Stony Man Mnt.--the AT's Highest Point in the SNP. We took some pictures and then stopped at the Pinnacle picnic grounds for water and a Privy break. Since it was getting late, Shepherd, Toddy Bear, and Yeti decided to press on towards the shelter. We had already put in about 20 miles and I was pretty tired. Luckily, Stovie decided to not push on and we hiked together. We hiked for a bit and then decided to stop for a snack break because we were tired and thought this might give us an energy boost. When we made it to Mary's Rock, it was very beautiful because of the way in which the sun was shining on it. My batteries were dead, so I waited while Stovie took a pic and then we pushed on. The last stretch to the shelter seemed really, really hard, but at 7:45p--12 hours and 10 minutes after starting--we arrived into camp. When we got into camp, I was sooo thirsty. Foolishly, I had forgotten that I had a litre in my PowerAde bottle and walked for 5 miles without drinking anything. The sun was starting to set so I quickly gathered some water and prepared the nightly meal. While my food was rehydrating I went to the Men's Privy--they had separate ones for men and women--and I realized that I had Chaffed alot today. So, I baby wiped myself and added Gold bond...my normal cure for chaffing, which does a very good job!!! Well, it's 9:30p and I'm very tired...especially since we have a 23 mile day planned for tomorrow. Oh! Shepherd has developed shin splints and says that his feet/toes are going numb. Also, while Stovie was in his sleeping bag, he kept moaning in pain, but it sounded funny (*wink, wink*). Oh! My total deer count for today is up to 13...Night!!!