Date: 2005-05-10
From: Parkers Gap Road, USFS 812

To: Jennings Creek, Va 614
Miles today: 11.4

Today is Tuesday May tenth. We spent last night again at the Econo lodge in DaleVille, our favorite place in our king size bed. We had a good time after we got off the trail. We stopped at Wal-Mart picked up some wine. Some other things. Went back to the motel, drank half a big bottle of wine. And we went out. So we're driving around and then go out to eat so I drove us into Thincastle and they just happened to have a sign for Library. Go into the library and went inside found some interesting things on Darrs from Botetourt County, Virginia. The most interesting thing is, According to the lady, they could have been born right there in Illinois. And it would say they were born in Botetourt County in Virginia because in seventeen eighty, when this guy was born, there was no Illinois. And Virginia had jurisdiction over that area of Illinois. Terry laughs at that idea. Anyhow I had a good time, drove back around into town, it was getting too late to go anywhere, so we had a McDonalds ice cream and subway. And then got to sleep. Woke up at six. Got on the road at quarter to seven. Parked one car down at Trail crossing Va 614 outside of Arcadia and Jennings creek. Took our other car back to Buchanan, up Hwy 43 to the Blue Ridge Parkway. we went 0.2 miles down this gravel road USFS 812 , and that's where the trail actually crossed. So we started from there at nine o'clock. Trails been pretty nice. Mostly down. We stopped at Black Rock overlook for ten minutes or so had a nice view looking north and west. Continued on and about twenty to eleven we were at the Cornelius Creek shelter. Spend twenty minutes there. Relaxing and actually having lunch. Left there at eleven. I forgot to say before. The first shelter there was five young guys probably in their late teens that passed us, and they asked us where that Apple Orchard trail was and they seemed a little worn out. They were the same group we think we'd seen a couple nights ago. So they are out for an extended stay. And then after the shelter, we were going up to Floyd Mountain and we ran into Bag. And he stood there and talked for probably ten minutes or more with us, telling us he'd thru hiked a couple years earlier. We talked about different places on the trail. He lives in Roanoke now and he sounds like he's a Virginia. Virginia Tech grad and going to graduate school. OK And then right behind him was Bedhead who didn't really stop and talk at all. Trail just kept going down, then we had a little up, down and down down down, go through different types of forests and different wild flowers. It was all beautiful, but of course our bodies are just saying, when can we stop. Finally we get to the Bryant Ridge shelter. There's one guy here Razz and he's got a dog and he's telling us the story. The dog followed him out of Pearisburg about a week ago and. So he sounds like a real animal lover. He¢s got English bull dogs that they raise, and so this dog might become another member of his family, but he's going to see if anybody from Pearisburg is missing a dog. He¢s going to trail days. He¢s going to take some people along, his wife is going to pick him up Thursday, I think take them down to Damascus. So we had a long talk with him. Oh, also on the way down to the shelter we passed Shadow who is an older gentleman. Late fifty's early sixty's. But his story was, down in Troutdale his wife had to leave the trail, she had a stress fracture in her foot. So she couldn't continue on. So he sounds like he's very very sad, he writes in The Journal about missing her, so we talked to him for a few minutes. And he's the guy from Maine and after he gets done hiking next year he's going to help out with shuttling people across this Kennebek river up in Maine, where they have like a canoe service, and the Appalachian trail club actually pays for this guy to do this shuttling. And this shelter¢s it's really really nice and big and good upper story with all sorts of plexi glass all around. You know, we would like to live near a creek, its just beautiful here. But now we're going to go on. We came in here, I didn't look at my watch, a little bit before two and now its quarter to three, and we've got to get going. Probably a whole hour here.Correction, we didn't make it out of the shelter in an hour because as we're getting ready and another guy comes in, Skeeter Feeder. Talk to him for a few minutes, and boy was he complaining about the going up and down, and I don't know, he's complaining about everything. And we thought, what's he talking about. There¢s just one little hill before we have to go down. Well we found out, and we're looking at the profile right now, on top of this Fork mountain. We swear it was like a thousand feet up. Coming up from the shelter we ran into Throw and his dog Fetch, that was funny. it was the guy with the Australian cattle dog and the dog just sniff me but went over to see Terry and started barking. The guy told him to do that. He said the dog wants someone to throw a stick. Terry says the guy gave the fetch command. So we had fun with that. Terry threw a little stick, Throw says," that wasn't big enough", and the dog fetches a big stick. Then we continued the tough climb up Fork Mountain. So anyhow it's 4:00 on top and who knows how much longer to the car. We don't know how many people we met coming down, another four or five, and two more dogs, they were together with this couple(Biscuit and Heeled), a chocolate lab and then a little Foo Foo dog. Not a real little one. Five o¢clock and we are down and done, down and dirty, lets see where we end up tonight. I'll tell you that tomorrow.