Date: 2008-05-31
From: 1/2 mile north of Pedlar River, VA

To: Hog Camp Gap, Va
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up this morning after a really good night's sleep. I woke up a couple times during the night and realized that it was very dark out....no moon lighting up the woods.I ate half a bag of chocolate covered mini donuts and had some water for breakfast.I was packed up and walking at 6:35am.It was very humid and warm out, with overcast skies. The early morning temperature was 65 degrees.I got to the first stream and I stopped and washed the stickiness of the humid morning off my body and washed all the cobwebs off my face.I was walking through lots of cobwebs that were newly stretched across the Trail overnight.There was a brand new bridge over Brown Mtn Creek just to the south of the shelter.I got to the shelter and Sunbeam was just waking up. Kyonite and Sunkist were still in their tent and Forecast and Aggie were packing up.Bus Driver had already walked on to the next road crossing hoping to get to town early.I got the register and signed it and used a smiley face sticker.Forecast and Aggie came over and Sunbeam was up, so I sat there for about 30 minutes talking to them before I walked on.All six of the hikers that stayed at the shelter last night were heading into town this morning. I'm stopping at Dutch Haus tomorrow, so I was skipping this town.I got out to U.S. 60 and Bus Driver was still there trying to hitch a ride.I sat down at the picnic table in the pulloff area and started eating a snack.Bus Driver came up and soon, Forecast and Aggie were there.I headed on up the mountain. It was about a 3,000 foot climb from where I slept last night to the summit of Bald Knob.It was so humid out that I stayed soaked all the way up.I saw three runners coming down the mountain and they stopped to talk. The one's name was Jeremy and he said they were training for an ultra.He also said I could have met Horton if I'd have been a few days earlier, but that he left yesterday to run the CDT.I told him about Bear Bag and that he was good friends with David Horton. Jeremy said he's heard Horton talking about Buffington.It really is a small world when you meet so many different people who know the same people you do. :-)I got to the summit of Bald Mtn....and was very glad to be done with that climb! :-)I walked down to Cow Camp Gap, then up to Cold Mtn.It just so happens that the book I'm reading right now is titled; ¢Cold Mountain".It was a different Cold Mtn though.I finally got data service on my cell phone on the north side of Cold Mtn, so I sat down on my backpack and sent in yesterday's journal entry and a bunch of pictures.That took about 40 minutes, then I finished walking down to Hog Camp Gap. I was planning on staying near there because it's only 10 miles to Dutch Haus and I'll walk that in the morning.There were five hikers with a fire going off to my left. I started heading off to my right because I needed water and the spring was about 1/3rd mile down the hill.One of the guys called me over, so I walked over and saw it was Crutch. He gave a me beer and I grilled two hotdogs! Wow, what a treat! :-)The other hikers were two sobos doing about half the Trail and two nobos....Landfill and Blue Tongue.I hung out with them for about 45 minutes, then walked down to the spring. It was flowing great and was nice and cold.I saw a spot and I decided to set my tent up. I went ahead and did that because it looked like it might rain anytime.I sat down outside on a log to drink some lemonade I made and ate my dinner...an early dinner because it was only 3pm.The blackflies drove me inside my tent, so I ate there, then started reading ¢Cold Mountain¢.I got one paragraph down and fell asleep for over an hour. :-)It was 4:30pm when I woke up, so I caught up on today's journal to that point of the day, then walked and got more water from the spring.I walked back up the hill to see who else was at the Gap. I sat up on Hog Camp Gap with the hikers there and listened to their stories till it was hiker bedtime.This was another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)