Date: 2016-06-06
From: Rice Fields Shelter 

To: Warspur Shelter
Miles today: 25.4
Weather: broken clouds

Last night we had the most epic sunset. The colors went until about 9:40. It made us feel like we were given something worthwhile for stopping so early. We missed the storms and it only rained for 3 minutes. So almost all of us were like ugh we should of kept walking. We only did 7.2 miles that day. I guess it's better to be safe than sorry. A bunch of us also got up at 5:30 to watch the sunrise. The shelter is up on the summit and there was a grassy bald with open views to the west, north and east. The south side was covered with trees and that is where the shelter was. The sunrise was not nearly as nice as the sunset. We ate breakfast and started to pack up when the fog rolled in. Good thing we we were able to get the sunrise in before that happened. I pushed off about 7:00 and the goal was 24 miles to warspur shelter. The RC (royal couple) is only 2 days ahead of us and Sarah is back from the UK. Simon stayed on trail when Sarah went back to visit her dying grandfather. Simon did not go to trail days and passed all of our locations where we got off for trail days. Sarah met up with Simon in Damascus and we were all behind them. Ompi told me they are not too far ahead when I saw him in Pearisburg so we decided to try and catch them. The group at the shelter were fantastic last night. I bunch of familiar faces from the smokies were there. Sea sharp, 2.0, sunshine were just some of the people there. The trail in the morning followed the ridge line for about 5 miles before we got to any climb. Most of us stopped for water 2 miles out and again for a late morning snack. It was kind of nice to meet up with people during the day. The last two weeks I've been hiking alone and gave seen no one. I'm glad I'm out of that bubble for now. I stopped at Pine Swamp Branch shelter for a snack. There was a note in the trail that read: This is Spam, I left my I-phone in a purple case on the picnic table at the last shelter 12 miles back. If you have it or know about it please stop at the shelter I'm waiting here. I got to the shelter and told Spam I saw it on the table last night and Ompi asked me who's phone is that. We though it was one of the other hikers and I didn't think anything of it. It was still on the table in the morning and I left before they did maybe Ompi or Sea Sharp have it. About 12 minutes later Sea Sharp rolled in with the save as he recognized the case and took it with him hoping to bump into Spam. The whole group from last nights shelter rolled into the shelter for a rest break. We all pushed on and headed for the "Captains". The captains is a private residents home who invites hikers in to camp in his yard and if raining to use his back porch for shelter to sleep. He provides an outlet to charge your devices. He has 4 picnic table and a fire ring. It's not a hostel so there is no going inside, or bathrooms. He has free cold drinks in the fridge on the porch and has a wireless password. It was such a nice place to stop and have lunch. It was only 2 and we weren't going to camp but the property was beautiful and well manicured. The best part is it's right on a creek and you have to take a zip line to get to it. You flip your bag onto a ring and sit on a seat and zip across. It was pretty damn cool. We called it air blazing. On trail we have nick names for movement on trail. Blue blaze= side trail not apart of the AT. Yellow Blaze= taking a vehicle around a part of the trail. Aqua blaze= kayaking or canoeing around a section of trail. Air blaze= taking a zip line. For the record I have not skipped any section of the trail. I'm one of those people that walk the same way out from the way I came in from a shelter do I don't miss the tiny piece in front of the shelter. I want to make sure I walks very piece. I'm what they called a purist. I also haven't slack packed yet but I'm sure when I get north and Peter (Jeff's dad) is close that might change. Ompi and I left and carried on. We had 8.8 miles to get to our goal of warspur shelter. We had a brutal 2 mile climb up to Bailey Gap shelter and I was crawling by the top. We rested with 2 other hikers. Then pushed on stopping for more water 2 miles later. We finally made it to the top of Lone Pine Peak and all we had was a 2.5 mile walk downhill. The last 2.5 mile walk was endless. It went on and on and on. We were dragging. Ompi's knees were starting to kill him so Aleve was popped promptly. We finally rolled into the shelter at 9:15 with just barely enough light to see. The shelter and surrounding areas were packed. We were like what the hell. I would say 30 people. Apparently we caught a bubble. I found a tent spot and took off my boots. Ompi unfortunately could not find a good spot to set up his hammock so said he was gonna go down the trail and would see me in the morning. I set up, made dinner and zonked. We did 25.4 miles today. Holy crap!!