Date: 2007-06-29
From: Seeley-Woodworth Shelter, VA

To: Montebello, VA
Miles today: 2.3

Wow, got a bit cool last nite. I've been sleeping in shorts and my camisole for several nites now, with my bag as a quilt. I woke up @ 6:00 a.m. and it was 61 degrees. It rained in the nite, pretty hard actually, but the storms stayed away.So today was just a day where I think I was not meant to hike. As you see frommy mileage, I got to Fish Hatchery Road, and ran into Sudoku and Coldylocks,Calm Water was there too.Coldylocks and Sudoku started talking about the Dutch Haus B&B, in Montebello,VA. They serve a free lunch to hikers and have a hostel as well.I had totally planned on NOT going to this place, but when they starteddescribing the double cheeseburgers, I absolutely could not tell my stomach no. Also, my cell phone battery was totally dead, so I thought it would be wise to have a chance to charge it (like the rationalization?)Oh, I also ran into a ridge runner (Mike) who was warning all of us that reallybad storms were supposed to be pushing through starting around 4:00 p.m. Iguestimated I'd still not quite be to my "planned" destination by then, andhonestly, having a break from the afternoon storm dodging was needed.So you hike 1.6 miles down a forest service road and wait @ a parking area,where the people come and get you @ 11:00 a.m. I was there @ 10:30, and was the only one there. Some guy in a truck was driving thru a field behind me spraying some insecticide or something. I waved him down to see if he knew for sure the B&B would automatically come or if I needed to call (no service no battery). He was familiar and said they'd deinitely be there.I waited a bit longer, and finally Mike (the ridge runner) emerged from thewoods and said, "Come on..hop in."He had gone back up to Seeley-Woodworh Shelter and carried out this freakinHEAVY half broken steele grill that had been placed over a fire pit. Thanks toMike and all the people who do stuff like this!!He dropped me off @ the Dutch Haus and WOW WHAT A GREAT PLACE!! The owners wereaway @ ther son's wedding, but their friends, John and Marty, and Marsha wererunning the place. Great people.I got there, plugged in the cell, and got the tour of this place. A nicebunkhouse, bathroom\shower\laundry all separated for hikers, laptop withinternet, front porch with swing, and just a wonderfully clean and organizedatmosphere. So I get my phone plugged in (this was important because "real life" canactually be more real out here than when you're immersed in it, and I had stuffI needed to tend to).I had given my friends an estimated time\date of arrival @ Rockfish Gap, and now it would change, so I called Karen and told her where I was. Well, it just so happened that some other needed gear items had shown up, this place was only 1 hour away, so she offered to bring the stuff down to me! Seriously, she's going to have to start claiming her taxi and delivery service as a home business if this keeps up! If anyone is wondering how an adult seems to have so much time to randomly drive places, she's a professor and is on a short summer break.Anyhoo, John, his wife Marty and John's sister Marsha are all surrogate hostelowners for 3 weeks. The owners are away at their son's wedding. So lunch wasserved and I scarfed the BEST double cheeseburger I've had in months! (stillremember those great burgers @ my first trail magic at the Cheese Factory Sitein Georgia).I got to meet Ping and Birchwood, 2 friends and section hikers. Ping had thisabsolutely magnetic and amazing energy about her. It was so cool meetingsomeone who also seemed to have this raw excitement for life. A person I really hope to run into again. I know she's from New Hampshire, somaybe I will when I get up there. Karen showed up and joined us for lunch. Itwas a great time for sure.So after lunch, we sat around and talked some. I helped Marsha find a phonenumber via the internet, and then I realized I needed to buy a few more supplies to make it the next 3 days to Rockfish Gap, so Karen drove me down to the little country store.She needed to put gas in her car, but all of these "good ole' boys" wereblocking the pumps with their trucks and boats on trailers. I kind of had tolaugh, because here were these 2 women who were OBVIOUSLY not from this area, in a fancy little hybrid car, needing to get one of these guys to move. Um...we opted to drive around and try to squeeze in from the other directon, after we sat there for a few minutes and were waved around\ignored! Ahh....to be in the south again.I noticed this fishing pond across the street and wanted to go check it out. There is a Trout fish hatchery up the road, so they stock the pond and you canpay a small fee @ the country store to fish there. Pretty cool. A little boygot his hook caught on a rope that ran across the pond and I tried to show himone of my old tricks to get it unstuck, but it was already too embedded. Sorrylittle boy, I tried!! Then we drove through this campground by the pond and I made Karen stop the car...there was this most incredible Harley Davidson sitting there, and I HAD to get out and look at it. The owners were in a huge RV and the man told me it is a 1950 Hardtail (meaning no shocks) and it was yellow with purple flames!! I asked the unthinkable and he allowed me to sit on this beauty. Wow...it was like butta, fit like a glove and I just about couldn't pull myself away. Man..what a great bike.So finally it's getting a little late and I had pretty much decided I'd stay @the hostel. All $ is going to Marsha's fundraising effort so she can do a 3-day60 mile walk for breast cancer. Both her and Marty are survivors, and I feltsuch deep happiness for them as they shined when they told me.I decided I wanted greasy fast food for dinner, so we took off in the hybrid togo towards I-81, which was about 30 min. away. (I got to drive for the firsttime in almost 4 months..it was HILARIOUS!)Probably 20 minutes away, I saw this cool place called The Osceola Mill that isa B&B and Restaurant. It looked so cool, so we stopped there. It has a hugeOLD mill-type water wheel, indoor and outdoor seating, a creek, and just a coolfeel, so that was to be the place for dinner.I'll fess up, it wasn't fast food, but I had a REAL steak for the first timesince I started this hike. WOOOOW!! I figured I'd not have access to food thisgood in awhile, so I went all out. Creme Brulee and all to finish off thisfantastic meal. The owners were incredibly nice people, and yet again, I got tosee a part of this wonderful state I normally would have missed had I been in ahuge hurry.Ok, so by now it's dark, and these bad storms are moving in. Then Karendiscovers she somehow left her entire wallet, driver's license, $, EVERYTHING at home! LOL (I had to put that one). She also confessed that nite driving on mountain roads in fog and storms wasn't exactly her bag, and then there was the concern of having zero identification or $, etc. if something did happen on the drive.So I offered to drive us back up to Charlottesville, and she could just drop meoff at Rockfish Gap in the morning and I'd hike the 3 day section back down to the Fish Hathery Road southbound to finish it up.Let's just say that not only had I not driven in almost 4 months, but driving in pounding rain on curvy mountain roads with thick patches of fog and freakin deer EVERYWHERE was a bit un-nerving. At times, I was going 12 mph because the fog was so thick I couldn't see more than a few feet in front of the car and I was a bit paranoid about hitting a deer that I couldn't see. We were driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway by the way, which is a great drive. Finally around midnight, we get back to Charlottesville, and I'm crashing hard. I'm sort of excited bout doing a small section SOBO because I'll get to see everyone I'd met recently.Well, just another chapter in the adventure. I will say that this hikerlifestyle of no set "way of being" is freeing in that it's probably the onlytime in my life that I have been able to exercise truly spontaneousdecision-making without feeling like it results in a logistical nightmare. ~Certain