Date: 2004-06-23
From: Ed Garvey Shelter

To: Pine Knob Shelter
Miles today: 16.6

One of the guys at the shelter was Two Cents. It didn't take long to understand the derivation of his name. He just couldn't help sharing his opinions, trhowing in his "two cents" and he did it constantly. We'd had a brief encounter at the ATC Headquarters. But now I was certain I didn't want to spend too much quality time with him. It's kind of sad to admit but this morning my mode was one of avoidance. It's not that he was a bad guy. He was a pretty nice guy. I just didn't want to talk that much. The idea was to hike fast enough that this guy wouldn't keep up. He seemed fascinated with my speed.The trail crossed through a little park at Gath's Empty Tomb. On my exit from the restroom with empty bladder and full bottle he saw me as he came out of the woods. After yet another comment on how hard it was to keep up with me he asked where the bathroom was. Well, it was pretty obvious as I was just closing the door but he just needed to say something. This only inspired me to move even faster. That made me feel a little guilty.A couple of hours later the trail delivered me to the Wise Farm, the site of the Battle of Fox's Gap, September 14, 1862. The several interpretive signs and plaques snagged my attention. A general from the north and one from the south died in this battle. This was the first commander from the north to be killed. Interestingly, the Confederate General, Samuel Garland, had been a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, the alma mater of my grandfather, uncle, and brothers.While checking out all this battle field stuff, Two Cents came through quite pleased with him self to be passing me by. At least he wouldn't be bugging me anymore. He had plans to spend a night in town soon and that would put him behind me. It was time for lunch part one anyway.The trail came to US40a in Turner's Gap. I was hiking with someone else. There was an Inn just to the left a bit. Neither of us had read anything about it but we headed there anyway. Maybe they would have some ice cream or something. The place seemed pretty dead. This was certainly not their busy time. We stepped inside and felt a bit out of place at once. This was a pretty fancy place. We asked if we could fill our bottles somewhere and were told of a spigot around back. There was a picnic table out back too so we took a break and ate some snacks. We had a good time talking with the grounds keeper for a bit and walked back up the road to where the trail crossed.This was a cloudy day but one full of historical sites.The trail passed through a field beside a very old stone church.A bit later we arrived at Washington Monument. Not the one in Washington DC of course, this was actually the first monument to George Washington. It was built, July 4, 1827. Later it was used by the Union Army as a signal station by building fires on top of it. Today it provided some nice though hazy views.Just before crossing I-70 on a cool foot bridge, the trail came into a small residential area. To get to the foot bridge it passed through someones yard. They had built a nice little pedestal for a journal for thru hikers to sign. The intersection of this little world of the kids playing in their back yard with the huge linear world of the AT stretching over 14 states was fascinating to experience. After crossing the footbridge it followed the chain link fence at the top of the highway embankment for a hundred yards or so and then turned back into the woods.Shortly the trail came to Pine Knob Shelter which was way to close to Interstate 70. The highway was just about 5 minutes ago. The noise at the shelter droned on and on all night long. It was like being in a big city.It was still mighty early when I reached Pine Knob Shelter. Certainly there were better shelters further along and it had only been 16.6 miles. It was tough to call it a day but the plan was to hang out until Buick showed up. Some kids from the nearby park showed up looking for some water.Having downtime at the shelter gave me the chance to read a fair amount of the register. There was a hiker ahead whose comments I had read from time to time. This register had an entry from a female thru-hiker that just ripped him apart. This was not typical register fare. In the end she was applauding him for having gotten a vasectomy because that meant his genes would not be passed on. Wow, that was harsh. It was hard to believe anyone on the trail would deserve this kind of treatment. I suspected the writer was a bit over sensitive. This opinion would be reconsidered in the not to distant future.Later, a thruhiking guy, Speak Up, showed up and even later a couple of women too. Buick showed up too. That was cool.One of the women was a thru hiker and the other was a visiting friend. The friend was feeling a bit out of place in the wild. We were all trying to help her out with the ways of the back country and that was of course plenty of fun.Speak Up was a middle school teacher but he didn't seem to have the best attitude for it. He talked a good line but really left us wondering. His name came from a program he had started to help kids out. It sounded great and I'm sure he was doing great things.Speak Up talked about walking to a nearby nightclub he had heard of but thought better of it when we showed no interest. He slept in a tent. The rest of us slept in the shelter goofing on the newbie about ¢lions and tigers and bears, oh my!¢