Date: 2005-05-01
From: VA 16 road crossing (Troutdale)

To: Davis Path Shelter
Miles today: 28.8

I made friends with the waitresses @ The Trading Post restaurant/convenience store/thrift shop here in the tiny village of Troutdale. I basically spent the whole day reading the newspaper there and hanging out, since there wasn't much else to do. But it was cool, a nice lazy day.A couple hikers got to the Baptist Hostel this afternoon, one of them was the guy who told me that shaving was going to kill. He started laughing when he asked me how it hurt. When I told him it didn't hurt at all, he confessed that he made the story up just to psyche me out! Last night, another hiker told me that only the left shower had hot water and the right was just cold, so I switched it on this guy and told him that only the right had hot water. Ha! I guess the joke's on him.Anyway, enough with this pink blazing nonsense, I'd have to sacrifice too much and there's only somewhat of a chance that I'd get what I wanted. I'm here to hike my own hike and that's what I'm going to keep doing. I'm not upset that I took a zero yesterday since I was exploring the option but no more!I passed 5 hikers this morning, three of whom had left the hostel in Troutdale yesterday morning. They seemed rather annoyed to see me actually, like I had no right to catch up so quickly after taking a zero. I am frankly sick of being judged for hiking faster than other people and no longer apologetic about it at all. Another thing is my pack, people seem to just assume I have no tent or don't know what I'm doing for carrying an 1800 ci pack and that I must not have everything I need. I definitely find myself judging these people too; I'm just not sure why anyone would want to carry so much weight when it's really not necessary. I never knew I was "ultralite" or "fast-packing" or some nonsense. I'm just doing my thing homie.Today was a good day, finally some nice weather! The terrain was really easy too and I walked quickly. I saw Lion King at the Mount Rogers visitor center, he was coming back from Wal-Mart. I passed on the pizza but talked to him for a while. I think he's a cool guy, a strong personality. He's huge too. Lion King's produced a documentary which I hope to see at Trail Days.I wasn't drinking as much water as I should have today and my leg cramped up. I drank like six Cokes when I got to the restaurant in Atkins. Blue Eye and NoWorries were there. Blue Eye told me that I was continuing to dehydrate myself because of the caffeine in Coke. Makes sense since caffeine is a diaretic but wouldn't the sheer quantity of the liquid cancel out the dehydration? Anyway, I did piss clear for the rest of the day and I'm working under the assumption that this is because of the six glasses of Coke. The waitress was bringing them two at a time! Thanks to Blue Eye for the Cokes and fries. Then I went over to Dairy Queen and had a peanut butter sundae, very nice.I walked a few miles more and saw Mateo on the trail. He had just gathered water and was doing a walking meditation up to the shelter. We started talking about the personal growth work we had done and being conscious and such. Tom was up at the shelter and so I decided to stay there. Tom told me about the motorcycle trip they plan to take after the AT. It would be six months to a year and they are going to buy cheap bikes and fix them up, then get crappy jobs along the way to pay for the trip. This is very tempting to get in on this since it's something I've wanted to do for a while. I might walk with them for the next few days especially since I could then spend the night at their friend's house out of Pearisburg. A good day.