Date: 2008-04-27
From: Waynesboro, VA

To: Calf Mnt. Shelter
Miles today: 7.0

By 8a, we were all packed up and Sir John took us to Weasie's for breakfast. Well, as usual, I ate my two over-easy eggs, hashbrowns, and 2 biscuits with jam! As we were eating, I enjoyed "Diner TV." You might be asking yourself, "What is this strange thing called Diner TV?" It's nothing more than watching the actions of the interesting people in the diner. The funniest thing I saw was a customer flirting with his waitress. Before he left, he paid for his meal with a $20 bill and the waitress said, "is this all you have? Your coffee was only a dollar." To this, he took back the 20, wrote his phone number on it and said, "keep the change and call me later beautiful!" This experience made me realize why I've always had trouble attracting women...I'm cheap and not willing to pay $20 for a $1 cup of coffee--sorry ladies!!! Then, we decided to leave and Sir John took the bills. Talk about being a Trail Angel...he bought our meals, shuttled us to dinner/resupply, and housed us in his hotel so that we wouldn't have to sleep out in the rain...THANKS ALOT SIR JOHN HARDESTY!!!So, Sir John dropped us off at the Dollar General Store and then headed back home. We waited for the store to open and Yeti bought a pair of camp shoes! We loitered for a bit and then decided to head over to the YMCA Campgrounds. When we got there, Sofa King told us about an incident which occurred this morning: While he was sleeping, 3 homeless guys with booze and bikes came by and tried to steal some equipment. Had he not been in his tent, they would have taken it. The purpose of this story is to re-itterate what the people at the YMCA told us...there's a problem with the homeless trying to steal hiker's gear!! Sadly, he also informed us that he was badly over budget and has to end his hike here. After that, we decided to call Margaritte, because she told us yesterday that she wanted to give us a ride back to the trail, and found out that she had skipped church so that she would be near the phone whenever we called...what a sweet, sweet lady! She picked us up, dropped us off at Rockfish Gap, posed for a picture, and then we began our hike. Since we only had 7 miles to do today, we decided to take our time. Well, we filled out our permits for the park, which were much cooler than the ones in the Smokies, and continued. Oh! Before we got to the shelter, we saw this odd sign which said, "Wrong Way, Turn Back P.A.T.C." Doing the typical TDM thing, we posed for some pics. When we did reach the shelter, we made ourselves at home and christened the Privy with Town food!!! Now, Toddy Bear and Yeti found a stash of Beef Flavored Ramen Noodles and decided to eat this as their lunch. Not eating beef/beef flavored items, I decided to eat my Emergency food...also Ramen Noodles...for lunch. Well, Toddy Bear and Yeti thought this was hilarious because we were only 7 miles and 5 hours out of town and I already ate my emergency food. We all had a good laugh about this and then saw a young lady and gentleman approaching the shelter. Their names were Holly and Steve, a brother-sister team who are out for a 2 week hike on the AT Thru the SNP (approximately 100 miles)! Also, this was her first time ever taking a backpacking trip. Then, Strides, a NorthBounder (NOBO), who started on March 8th, rolled in to camp. We asked him about Fester, Kanati, Bunz and Roses, Night Terror and other people behind us and we filled him in about the people ahead of us. Next, CRASH, a PA trail Maintainer who's section hiking the SNP rolled in followed by SHEPHERD, another NOBO who started March 5th! Shepherd is a pretty cool guy who reminds me alot of TRAILFOOT! Ok, I'm gonna set the scene because this is hilarious. Now, it's 5:29p and we are all really hungry, but we are waiting until 5:30p to eat so that we don't wake up hungry in the middle of the night. Holly, sitting in her sleeping bag to keep warm, witnessed "a life changing phenomenon:" Hiker eating Frenzy!!! The minute somebody announced that their watch said 5:30p, Toddy Bear, Yeti, Strides, Shepherd and I all began preparing our meals. Without skipping a beat, we all moved quickly to boil our water, eat pre-dinner snacks, prepare tomorrow's lunch--so that I could eat some of the extra peanut butter, and maintain silence/extreme focus! Imagine what that poor young lady was thinking when she saw this? After eating, we all prepared to hang our food on these "Bear Tree" looking things. The pole, approximately 20-30ft long, is very heavy and the "branches" on the "tree" are short and steep. I think when the PATC installed these, they forgot to account for the upper body muscle mass which we have lost, because we all struggled. Shepherd got a good video of this!! It was so funny to watch, that whenever somebody would hang their food, everybody would stop to watch. Well, it's official, I will be getting off the trail at Pine Grove Furnace, after taking the Half-Gallon Challenge, I will be leaving the AT until 2009 because I've got to get my affairs for med school in order. I was finally accepted to a school in KY, which is near where Toddy Bear lives, and I told myself that if this occurred while on the trail, I would leave around the half-way mark so that I could handle all of my affairs. Well, this now makes these next 240 miles somewhat sad. Well, enough emotional stuff, I'm off to bed because I'm starting to get hungry again and can't eat because it's pretty hard hanging my food!!!