Date: 2009-06-13
From: Groundhog Creek Trail

To: Bailey Gap Shelter
Miles today: 10.3
Weather: light rain

In the wee hours of the morning, I heard the rumbling of a V8 engine coming into the barn. Trying to snap out of my tired stupor, I looked up and saw Adam driving his oversized truck into the opening of the barn. ¢Man, I thought you would be up early this morning!¢ Adam said. He waited for a short time while I packed up my belongings and prepared for the day at hand. One of his country buddies pulled his own truck into the barn telling Adam that one of his steer was lost and that it was probably somewhere amongst Tommy¢s steer. Adam had explained to me that these cattle truly are an investment. They end up buying them on the market for about $400-$500, allow them to graze for a year or two, and then sell them for $1200-$1400, depending on the market. Typically, they are sold and shipped to farmers in Nebraska, where they are fed all sorts of ¢crap¢ (there is no better word for it) to beef them up and then they are butchered and sold to fast food joints like McDonalds. Thankfully, I never really have eaten food at McDonalds and, after listening to these stories, I probably never will again. When we were ready to go, I hopped into the truck and we drove two miles down the road to the town diner. I¢m not really sure what the town was called, but I do know that it was really small. It was a setting completely out of the 1970¢s. We chatted about life in the country in West Virginia and they introduced me to many others in the diner. Adam had gone to a state college for three years, but left without a degree, but with the understanding that he loves and enjoys working on the land. I offered Tommy money to pay for breakfast, but he refused it and said that if I ever find myself back in West Virginia, that I must look him up. I agreed to do so. As Adam and I left the diner, his wife pulled up in an SUV and I was able to meet her and their beautiful little girl (the name escapes me at the moment). His wife said that Adam couldn¢t stop talking about me the ¢hiker¢ that they had met the night before. Very nice folks. On the way back to the trail, Adam and I continued talking about the AT and I also found out that he was only 23 years old. Due to his maturity and grace with people, I really thought as if he was 30.It was already 11:00 am by the time that I started climbing up the ridge on the Groundhog Trail. When Jeremy, Robin, and the dogs and I had climbed the peak a week prior, it was really tough and I knew that it would be even more difficult with a fully stocked pack. It was hot and humid and by the time that I reached the top ¢ about 2,000 vertical feet of climbing ¢ it looked as if I had jumped into a swimming pool. The trail to the top was so overgrown that a passerby wouldn¢t even think that there was a trail there. I had a few concerns on the way up: stepping on a snake, hitting a nasty patch of poison ivy, or even falling off the side of the switchback. At the top of the ridge, I talked with a father and son (Charley and Doug) from Richmond, VA. They were out doing a multi-day hike and enjoying the beautiful scenery of Virginia. Doug will be graduating from Virginia Tech next year and is a little apprehensive about the prospects about getting a job utilizing his degree of architecture. When I stopped to chat with them, I noticed that, as I was wearing two large knee pads to help with my leg muscle problem, the back of my knees suffered deep wounds. I wouldn¢t even classify them as cuts because they had burned all the way to the flesh and it was beginning to puss and bleed. I was also beginning to notice that my shoes were deteriorating quite rapidly and that I was soon going to have to switch them out. The soles of my shoes were so worn that when I would walk on top of rocks, I could feel the sharp edges stabbing into my feet. At one point, I came across a small fawn that was just off to the right-hand side of the trail. It stopped with its behind facing me, but with its neck turned back around, curious as to my next move. We just kind of looked at each other for a few minutes ¢ it was much of a symbiotic relationship with nature. The fawn knew that I wasn¢t going to harm it and I knew that the fawn did not pose any danger to me. When I arrived at Pine Swamp Branch Shelter, I found Walking Home! He had gone back home to the Boston area for a concern with Scree Freak and had just made it back. He skipped about 100 miles or so, as he wanted to catch up with some of his friends. I think that many of the people with whom he was hiking are now all over the place, however, or off the trail. He was waiting for Chef, who had also gotten sick at Kincora Hostel, and had jumped a small section in order to catch up. Later on, two girls that were section hiking came on up to the shelter. They were in need of some denatured alcohol and, since I had some extra, I offered it to them. The one girl said, ¢Hey! You know that you look like the guy in that movie?¢ ¢The Notebook?¢ I asked. ¢Yeaaahhhh! That¢s it! Ryan Gosling or something! I mean, it¢s a compliment. If I were not a lesbian, I would think that you were pretty damn hot.¢ I find it to be quite hilarious that this is a constant them out on the trail. I pushed on until I came to the Captain¢s Hostel. I had randomly heard that you had to use a zipline and pulley in order to pull yourself across the river. Curiosity struck again and I headed down the embankment to find this strange looking pulley system. You had to sit your bum down on a small one foot wooden piece and then pull yourself across a 40 foot fast-flowing river in order to get to the other side. It took a little while to figure it out but I got there in the end. When I reached the other side, I tried to get in touch with the owners of the hostel, but no one was around. So, I had some fun on the pulley system and kept jumping off the river edge, flying across to the other side. It was straight out of a Peter Pan movie. I hiked on and was rewarded with a beautiful golden sunset. From the road crossing, it was only supposed to be a mere 1.1 miles to the shelter, but I know that it was MUCH more than that. Darkness had already descended and, by the time that I had reached the shelter, Walking Home had finished eating and was all ready for bed. I had hiked 10.3 official miles on the AT, but it was more like 13 or so, given the Groundhog Creek side trail from the base of the ridge.