Date: 2012-06-15
From: Reeds Gap

To: Paul C. Wolfe Shelter
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: broken clouds

We woke up to a peaceful morning, not many birds chirping or people making noise, just peace. Thanks to the Devil's Backbone Brewery for letting us pitch our tent behind their banquet room. They left the building unlocked for us hikers to use the bathrooms and porch area for tenting. After we woke up, Sonic and Koozie from Germany also got up to start their day. Sonic needs to be in Waynesboro by 5 to get his mail from the post office. We planned to stay 14.1 miles away at the shelter before Waynesboro. The young hikers have legs and feet of steel. We on the otherhand start hurting about 10 miles but can usually stretch about 14 miles out of our bodies and feet. Half Left I am sure could go farther, but it wouldn't do him any good because I would not be able to. In order to get to the trail, we had to hitch the 3 miles up the mountain back to Reed's Gap. Sonic, Koozie and Half Left stuck their thumbs out and goofed off a bit. Half Left pulled his shorts leg up to expose some "skin" and Sonic (who wears a skirt) just put on his huge smile. Well it worked! A young lady in a SMALL car pulled up and said, "I wouldn't have stopped, but their a four of you, so I felt safe". We piled all four of our packs and bodies like little sardines in her little Chevy and zoomed up the mountain, smokin' up a storm. Her little car could feel the weight riding up the mountain. We were all wondering if it would make it.We arrived at the gap and put our packs on, starting about 8:00 am. Sonic took the lead, followed by Koozie, then Half Left and myself. I stopped long enough to shoot a photo of the guys hiking in front of me. The Germans took off, we warmed up and began our pace for our easy but long hike. The hike looked back over the difficult climb from the day before. There were lots and lots of rocks, boulders and slate covering most of the hike. In a few places, we had to scale up huge boulders to get to the crest. A one point, we climbed up about 30 feet and sat on the top for lunch. It overlooked the trail. On top were pools of water and succulent type plants. After our rest and lunch we continued on the rocky trail. Half Left raised his hand for me to stop and pointed to the left, a deer just staring at us, not afraid. He slowly got the camera out and took a few photos. He was gorgeous and contined on. The trail moved from the west side of the mountain to the east side and opened up to show us Wintergreen Ski Resort with all the runs, ten of them. I was glad because on the way up to the gap, we saw a huge sign pointing to the resort but couldn't see it from the road.We continued our quest for Paul Wolfe Shelter. Rocks, rocks and of course more ROCKS! My feet ached. We stopped for one last sit down before the downhill into the gap where the shelter was located. Two HUGE piles of bear scat were right in the middle of the trail. Definately they were fresh, but we never spotted the culprit. After arriving, another hiker behind us told us he saw the female bear along with a cub. I was glad and sad we didn't see them. A bear isn't really on the bucket list to see especially with a cub.We arrived at the shelter about 5:30, it was a welcome sight! A large stream ran right in front of the shelter which sleeps about 12 people. We were the only two in the shelter, others tented or used their hammocks. After dinner and placing our food on the bear stand, Half Left and I laid in the lonely shelter. About 8:30pm, Gus, an older man who seems to find us arrived. He said I'm sorry to wake you. We said no problem and he continued to talk to himself and eat his dinner as we fell fast asleep.