Date: 2003-06-10
From: Fullhardt Knob Shelter

To: Taylors Mt Overlook
Miles today: 9.4

Today started like any other day. Wake up, pack up and leave camp by 7:30. It definantly didn't end in a typical way though.I knew we would be crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway several times today before reaching our stopping point. I was feeling nervous about the crossings today for some reason, so I didn't hike too far ahead of Shepshank. I got to the Taylor's Mountian Overlook on the BRP and decided to wait for her. Several cars would stop, look at the view, and take off again. Then a woman pulled up, got out of her car, and asked me if I was hiking alone. That's a little weird, I thought, until she told me why she asked. She had been getting to study at a different overlook and a guy in a white van pulled up and sat there watching her. She felt uncomfortable, so decided to go to another overlook. He drove by the second one several times. So she decided to leave.She saw me at the next overlook, the first trail crossing. She wanted to warn me about this guy. As she was telling me this story, he drove by two times. Sheepshank arrived soon after. We stood at the overlook for a half an hour and this guy drove by at least ten times, sometimes squealing his tires near by, so he could turn around again.We all decided that the rangers needed to be informed of this bizzare behavior, so we got into her car to go look for one. At one point, the guy in the white van pased us going the oppisite way. He saw us, swerved in our lane after he passed, went into the ditch and pulled back up on the road and back into his lane. Now the woman was getting very scared. The guy must have turned around again, because he was soon three cars back, intent on getting people to pull off to a overlook to get right behind us. This guy tailgated everyone until they moved. There was a red truck behind us that realized that some thing was going on, and wouldn't let the van scare him off. The van tried to get around him, but couldn't do so because of the amount of traffic. We could tell this guy was very aggitated because he coulnKt get behind us. I think the guy who was harrassing us soon realized how close we were to a vistor center and he turned off on the road going to Buchanan, Va. We reported the incident to the Blue Ridge Parkway Rangers. After an hour and half of talking to them, we decided that any of the shelters that we could go to were too close to the Parkway for our comfort and we didn't know if there were any other hiker behind us that would make it to the shelter tonight. We decided to camp at the Peaks of Otter Campground so we would be around people.The woman took us to the resturant at the Peaks of Otter Lodge, where she was going to wait for a friend who was going to follow her home so that she felt safe. She said that when we were finished eating she would drive us back to the campground. Sheepshank decided that she wanted to stay at the hotel, so after a bit of discussion, we decided to do so.I must admit that I am a little afraid of going back to the trail, knowing that we have to cross the Blue Ridge Parkway several times in the next few days. We are trying to decide if we are going to get back on at the same place or skip ahead a little bit, so that we have less of a chance of running into him again. We also have to figure out how to get the word out about this as quickly as possible so other hikers know about it.Today's events really tired me out, and I'm feeling very stressed. I'm going to sleep now.