Date: 2018-05-08
From: Wise Shelter

To: Hurricane Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: broken clouds

Another really cold night - not the best sleeping. I was awake for a few hours in the middle of the night, shivering and listening to the snorechestra. (I snored myself awake so I can¢t point fingers). But I was lying down for almost 12 hours so it¢s not surprising I was awake a lot. A sunny morning. We were supposed to meet up with Jan at a place called The Scales but the road was a really rough 4WD road so we figured she wouldn¢t make it. So we continued to Old Orchard Shelter for lunch. We crossed VA 603 where Jan went to try to meet up with us, but she got there after us. We finally got cell reception and got in touch with her. But I guess she was asking hikers if they had seen us because several told us they had seen her and she was looking for us. The best comment was this guy ¢Are you Paul? Your wife says hi¢.Several thru-hikers have been here - some just for dinner, some staying. There is a Finnish couple, an Indian guy, an American woman, and a few American guys. Right now the Finnish woman is giving the Indian guy his first massage. She just asked him ¢Do you feel like a white lady now?¢What do you want to add, Paul?5/8/2017 To: 514.5 Hurricane Mt. ShelterWe hiked out of Wise Shelter in the morning and I got a wiff of a cell phone signal.  I called Jan and she offered to meet us at The Scales (a corral area that I heard was supposed to be a nice area to camp).  Apparently people use this area to car camping as well.  On the way up to The Scales, we walked through a cattle grazing area.  Judy stopped up ahead and commented about the steer with horns ¢ you know the type of horns that Texans put on the front of their Cadillacs.  Judy said ¢Do you see the cow up ahead with the horns?¢  I said, ¢No, I see the three cows with horns.  Look to your right.¢  Judy is such a polite hiker.  She offered to let me go first.I had learned a few of the hiker etiquette rules; hikers going uphill have the right of way, slower hikers give way to faster hikers.  Apparently, there is another one ¢ the older brother gets to walk past the steer with Cadillac horns first.  One crossed the path in front of me.  I waited until he passed.  Good thing they were pretty mellow.We made it to The Scales, but no Jan.  I looked for the road expecting to see a paved country road but all that was there was a rutted one-lane Forest Service road.  We waited a while for Jan, but figured (hoped) that she realized the road was going to be tough passage.  No cell signal, so tough to communicate.   I spent the next several hours worried that Jan was upside down in a ditch off that road.  I got a text late in the afternoon (which I didn¢t realize until later) saying Jan would meet us at another location (Fox Creek) around 1500.  Unfortunately, the trail had been pretty good and we went through there about 1415.Jan got to meet a lot of thru hikers at Fox Creek and was asking whether they had seen us.  After we got to Hurricane Mt. Shelter, there was a parade of thru hikers coming in passing the message that Jan had been looking for us.  I finally had a good cell signal at the shelter and texted Jan, but she was in a location where she couldn¢t receive, so it wasn¢t until she went back to town that we were able to communicate back and forth.  Jan also got to meet the legendary Trail Angel Miss Janet.One of my concerns that I would get the trail name ¢Silver Alert¢.  I came close I think.