Date: 2006-05-03
From: Chestnut Knob Shelter

To: Campsite after Jenkins Shelter
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up last night to roaring wind and rain. I felt secure and glad to be under a tin roof in a four sided shelter with a door. They're necessary in the higher elevations, especially on a treeless peak. It sounded like the roof would fly off, but I knew the place was tight. I did think of Parkay back tenting by the creek. His luck if it rose and washed him out. I was out first and glad to have the trail to myself. The knob was fogged in and clouds blew over the rounded peak. As I descended I left clouds behind. I continue to be dazzled by the Virginia spring. The grass is green, flowers everywhere. The dogwood are beginning to bloom and so are the rhododendrons. For a few weeks a year those wretched shrubs do contribute rather than obscure the landscape.Early morning cleared into a sunny day. Like most of the Virginia hike so far I was walking along a ridgeline. I stopped at several vistas to look at the valley below. Farms with green fields stretch from one end to the other. I was high enough to see the whole expanse. I counted about twelve barns and silos, all miles apart but clearly within my view. From that far off the silos all reminded me of New England light houses. More long ridgelines stretched out behind.This was a flying day. I hit my hikers high early and kept it all day. I stopped to relax at Jenkins Shelter. I stretched out on my sleeping pad, shoes off and treated myself to afternoon coffee. By now the sun was bright and warm. I threw my shirt over a metal fire grate to dry and feel the sun on my chest and torso. I'm so glad I started this hike in March. I'm feeling the physical sensations of the seasons. Wrapped under four layers in the ice and snow in the Smokies to nothing but a kilt in the spring Virginia sun.For the first time this afternoon I veered off the AT on to an alternate blue-blazed high water trail. Signs for miles warned of a bridge washed out on Little Wolf Creek. The high water trail was soft and grassy, not much of a view but a pleasure under my feet. It's less used and not packed hard like the AT highway. First landmark on the trail that everyone mentions was the dead skunk, hard to miss. The second was a lost chicken out of her element just wandering a wide park of the trail. I stopped to chat and ask why she was there. I even scolded a bit. She wasn't listening to reason. The trail ended with a short road walk and turned up stone steps back into the woods. I was at the campsite where I wanted to spend the night. Very flat ground for tenting, a fire ring and a picnic table. The first think I saw on entering was a big styrophone box I thought, oh great, more dumped trash. I gingerly lifted the lid and was filled with joy to find bottles of fruit juice packed in ice, trail magic from the local Methodist church. After days of warm purified water, ice cold grape juice was almost better than orange crush. Because I was alone, secure from judging eyes, I had two grapes and an orange juice in quick succession. It was wonderful to be in early and have the place to myself. I set up my tent and unpacked. Then I boiled water and treated myself to a trail bath. It's been at least a week since I last showered. Head to toe with my bandana, warm water and Dr. Brauners (sp?) miracle soap is a good as it gets. A few layers of grime from my body and grease from my hair. Another reason why kilts are so practical on the trail. After an hour of peace the place filled up. The crew from last night came in; Hinds Feet, Chow Chow, Tinkerbell, Sumo, O2Bee. Coyote Beck and Gumbie, a married couple I haven't seen in a while pulled in. Jay Bird stopped in just for dinner. Conversation flowed much more easily that it has. I haven't met Jay Bird but liked him right away. He's working on his third thru-hike. He's done it southbound and norhtbound. We all told him he has the look in his eyes of the true thru-hiker. I've seen it before and hope to have it myself and understand what it means. I told him about meeting Zoot last summer on the Kinfe Edge trail of the look in his eyes and that I'd made the decision to hike then and there. Jay Bird understood.The couple is my age and we agreed that we are the minority on the trail. They're hiking together and obviously don't have my loneliness issue, but they don't see many others in our range. I'd like to get to know them better. Hopefully we'll meet again. We had a visitor several times this evening, an odd character with a car camping across the road. He says he's hiking but waiting for a friend and also mentioned a job opportunity. He also said his car was packed with stuff if we needed anything. I asked for a chocolate shake. Sumo asked for a ride to town. He declined. He came back a few times to ask who'd passed through. Sumo and I talked to him for a bit, but he seemed both suspicious and creepy. I figured that he was probably selling weed. What else could he have in the car that qualified as anything we might need? While eating lunch at Jenkins Shelter I glanced through the register. In one of the entries someone had posed a question supposedly asked by the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. Who are you? After all those miles, who are you? I started to consider it while walking the high water trail and will continue to consider it. It's good to think about over the course of this thing.While mulling it over and talking to myself I decided to take the more solitary aspects of the hike to heart, to turn around the negativity thats been tainting my experience for awhile. I don't ordinarily chase after people, and I don't usually feel the need for company, especially younger people, and I don't usually feel the need for anyone's approval. I reinforced this by taking comfort rather than distress in being on my own out here. I came out on my own and for me. I don't need to be changing the better parts of me and taking on some other role. I know I've said this earlier on, but often I know an answer without actually taking it to heart. Lesson learned. Let the ones who want my company find me. Let me find company I actually want.