Date: 2006-04-03
From: VA 623

To: VA 625
Miles today: 10.8

Monday, April 3, 2006 Set one car 8 miles in from Rte 42 at Rte 625 and take the other to Rte 623 where they will start their hike.Cloudy, blustery, cold low 50¢s.On the way they see 2-4-2-2 a total of 10 deer and 3 fat turkeys.At the trailhead at 9AM they meet thruhiker Mark, who distinguishes himself from all the other Marks on the trail by writing the R in his name backwards. Mark started in February and has run into all kinds of weather, including snow. They give him a liter of fresh water and chat for a bit.Trail Names. "Memere" is French for grandmother. "Gray Feathers" got her name from her grandchild who remarked that her hair looked like it had gray feathers in it (this, just when it was beginning to turn gray).Gray Feathers is experimenting with Amoeba's flour sack headwear. She's had a bout of pneumonia. Cold air could trigger another one. The cloth shades her face and warms the cold air. I love this! she says.9:45 They meet Robin¢s Nest, then her hiking partner Batman. Amoeba will meet them again April 27 at Bears Den.A day much like the day Purple Rose and Amoeba hiked this piece last year.At a rocky outcrop Amoeba thinks she¢ll wait for Memere and Gray Feathers, then decides to go down into Walker Gap and up to Chestnut Knob Shelter and wait for them there.She climbs Chestnut Knob easily, without getting out of breath or feeling any burning in her legs. Compared to last year, she¢s in better shape, and last year she was in better shape than the year before.Noon, 4-sided Chestnut Knob Shelter, protection from the howling wind.An observation: if you use the Chestnut Knob privy in a strong wind, TP and duff is blown up at your butt. Yuk. Gotta close the cover fast or that stuff will blow right out the hole. Someone remarks about this in the register. It¢s true.Also in the register it says that the blazing south of the shelter is poor. Another entry in the register says: "3-31-06 Hiking from Burke¢s Garden looking for ATV¢s.One track from last week.Planning enforcement actions.Kenny Mullen. USFS/ Law Enforcement. Virginia."Into the shelter come Moleman and Trev, followed by Trev¢s sister, Pebbles, so named because in Hiawassee, seeing her limping, another hiker told her she looked like she was walking with rocks in her shoes.Amoeba met Moleman between Deep Gap and Muskrat Creek Shelter back in the beginning of March. He tells her he spent 2 days with Mrs Gorp at Miss Janet¢s and that right now Mrs Gorp is perhaps 3-4 days behind him.Trev and Pebbles hail from New Jersey.All 3 are mighty hungry. While eating, all they talk about is food. Trev tells the story of going to the Italian restaurant (Sicily) in Damascus and asking how big the family-size calzone is. Instead of answering him in inches, the server says, ¢You can eat it.¢ He ordered it, it was about 14 inches by 6 inches, and yup he ate it. Pebbles wants to eat a Slim Jim as tall as she is!Hiker appetites.Memere and Gray Feathers arrive.About 1:30, as Amoeba, Gary Feathers and Memere are leaving the shelter, the sky is dramatic: white and dark gray cloud formations, interesting light. Big weather. In fact, at this moment there are full-blown tornadoes in TN, a tornado watch right here in VA.A small pond, with some peepers peeping.Amoeba is walking fast. Soon Memere and Gray Feathers are out of sight.A friendly female swallowtail (I think) lights next to the trail several times, then a yellow male. The female asks to have her picture taken. Amoeba complies. At a crossroads, Amoeba can¢t find any blazes. Was this the poor blazing referred to in the register? She walks back and forth along 4 sections of trail that intersect and can find only a piece of pink ribbon, no white blazes. It doesn¢t look foot-travelled here. She¢s not sure which of the 4 tracks is the AT. The map shows a sharp turn to the left. But there are no blazes. She waits for Gray Feathers and Memere. They'll have the same difficulty.After a little while, slowly, Amoeba realizes she¢s off the AT. Probably while she was hiking fast she went wrong staying on a wide ATV trail instead of turning left onto a narrower AT.She climbs all the way back up the hill and finds a white blaze on a post that has fallen onto the ground.Yup, that¢s just what happened. Wow. She¢s lost a lot of time, maybe 50 minutes. Gray Feathers and Memere must be well ahead and Amoeba has the car keys. They¢ll have to wait for her at 625.She starts to jog, but it¢s hard to on this kind of trail and she doesn¢t want to fall. A fast walk will have to do.Out at 625 about 4:10. Gray Feathers and Memere are sitting under a large tree, waiting about 15 minutes. They¢ve been speculating where Amoeba is. They figured she went off to take pictures.