Date: 2016-06-14
From: Matts Creek Shelter

To: Brown Mountain Creek Shelter
Miles today: 18.3
Weather: clear sky

I didn't wanna get up today. With the sound of the creek at the shelter and warm temps it was a comfortable night sleeping and I slept well. I finally pulled myself out of bed and filtered water and packed up my tent. I organized my food bag and figured out what I was doing for lunch. Ompi had gotten up and bit earlier and pushed off as I was eating breakfast. I got on trail at about 7:30 as the RC was finishing up their breakfast. This morning the first thing staring me in the face was a 2000 ft climb up to the summit of little rocky row and big rocky row both near 3000 feet in elevation. The climb was not terrible with a lot of switchbacks but for some reason I was sweating buckets. I reached the summit of little rocky row and took a break. There was a fantastic view of the James River looking south and you could see the foot bridge we had passed over yesterday. I took some pictures. I continued on and descended a little bit before climbing again. The next knob had a small viewpoint over looking the river again. I sat and rested and posted a few pictures and texted Jeff. I received a text from Otter. The wedding is over and was wonderful and he is coming back on trail from Ohio. He asked were I was and I told him right now not near a town but the next big town would be Waynesboro. After some back and forth I came up with a plan. Ompi and the RC are going to do a Nero tomorrow or what they like to call take it easy Wednesday. There is a hostel 8 miles away 1 mile from the gap we will be walking through. They are going to set up their tent and walk to the hostel to resupply and have lunch. Then on Thursday they will do around a 18 mile day and Friday do 12 miles and camp at a brewery. The brewery provides breakfast and some other nice things including a ride back to trail. Saturday they have a 15-18 mile day and then Sunday into Waynesboro where they will take a zero on Monday. My plan is to do big miles tomorrow. I will split from Ompi and the RC for a bit probably for about a week. I am pushing for 30 miles to the 4th shelter from where I am tonight. It will depend on weather, terrain and how my body feels. Then on Thursday I will have 23 miles to do to reach Waynesboro where Otter will pick me up in his rental car. We will stay in town and I would like to take a zero Friday so I can do laundry, relax etc. Saturday we get back on trail and with Otter being off trail for about three weeks we will do low miles until Ompi and the RC catch up and then continue north from there together. That is the current plan as it stands now. After this longer break of texting I continued on and descended for a bit then had another climb. I don't remember the name of this mountain or the one prior. I have a routine that every time I complete a page in the guidebook I rip out the competed page and burn it causing the guide book to get lighter and lighter. It's sort of another motivator to get to Maine. Normally I burn it after I write the journal entry in case I need to go back for reference. Tonight however I burned it before and now I can't look anything up ha ha. The climb up mountain number 3 was steady but not steep. I caught up to Ompi who was resting and his ankle was acting up on him. We both continued on and made it to the summit at about 11am. There were great views to the west and east. I took a break and sat on one of the concrete remnants of an old fire tower. There was a plaque remembering a child who got lost and made it 7 miles up the mountain in a snow storm and died frozen to death by the summit. After resting and drying out my sweaty clothes I continued on. The plan was to meet at the next shelter for lunch. I passed Ompi on the descent as he was resting his ankle and arrived at the shelter at about 11:45am. I took out my therma rest and laid it on the shelter floor. I was beat almost to the point of exhaustion. I'm not sure why as I slept great and have been eating as much as I can. Ompi showed and we chatted for a bit and I must have passed out. I slept for about 15 minutes and awoke with a start. I was like sorry Ompi for falling asleep on you while we were talking. He said no worries I checked out the water source and it's not the best the side stream will work well for a pump filter but not for my sawyer. I'm gonna continue on .40 miles more and fill up by the Blue Ridge Parkway and I might come back and rest here. I said ok and laid back down as I was so sleepy. I thought to myself I will wake up when the Royal couple gets to the shelter. Well the RC decided to push on and not stop at he shelter as it was .20 miles off the trail. I jumped up out of a sound sleep and was like what time is it? Where am I? I looked at my watch and it was nearly 2pm. Yikes!! I guess I needed to sleep. I wonder if the Royal couple are ahead or behind me as at this point I didn't know they had pushed ahead. I packed up after eating a quick lunch and descended down to the blue ridge parkway where they had a trash bin. Yay!!! I continued on with a series of 4 rises and descents were ahead of me. None of them very long but steep. On the third rise a military jet who must have been training zoomed overhead with a big boom. I thought a plane was crashing and dove into the bushes. It sounded like it was headed into the mountainside and scared the bejesus out of me. The trail then did a long 3 mile descent down to a gravel road and a small river. There was a suspension foot bridge with a yellow note attached at the end of the bridge that read Hornets nest under third post. Then someone else wrote yellow jackets nest mid way on bridge. Then finally someone else wrote fucking bees all over entire bridge do not bounce when walking over bridge. I was like oh boy this is gonna be fun. I started on the bridge and walked briskly and did not stop. Bees were flying about but I stayed ahead of them. Hikers are great about leaving signs that warm of dangers. Things like rattlesnake under rock at 12:30 June 11. So you don't end up sitting on rock or bees nest here. It's a good thing but sometimes it makes you paranoid for awhile because you are now looking for something that is no longer here. Better to be safe though and the heads up is well appreciated. After crossing the bridge I had a small climb and crossed the 800 mile mark. Holy crap 800 miles Wow! There was a small stick display the read 800 miles, spelled out with sticks. The trail then followed the side of a hill overlooking a lake. The trail side hiked for about 3 miles and all I wanted to do was jump in the lake but there was no easy way down to the lakes edge. I passed several lake houses and suddenly heard a telephone ringing in the middle of the woods. I looked around and no houses, cabins, cottages. I could see the lake but no buildings. All I could think of was the person had there phone rigged up to a loud speaker so they could hear it ringing when outside in the yard or on the lake. It was rather strange to be in a woods setting and hearing a house phone ring. I did think I was hallucinating for a few minutes. I was like am I really getting that delirious. I crossed over a fast flowing creek and refilled up on water. At this point I only had 2 miles to go following the creek called Brown Mountain Creek to the shelter. I arrived at 6:15 with the RC and Ompi being there about 30 minutes prior. They met up and had lunch at the footbridge with the bees. They all said have a good nap you must have really zonked to not catch up to us. I set up my tent by the creek where the designated sites were and Ompi was nearby with the RC being in the pad one site over. I jumped in the creek and cleaned up. The water felt fantastic. We all made dinner together in a circle and chatted while we ate. I told them of my plans to run ahead and meet Otter and have him recondition himself while they catch up. They are happy we all will still be together. Slosh and I discussed the 4 state challenge. Hiking from the Virginia border to the Pennsylvania border in 24 hours. It's a thing some hikers try to do. It's 44 miles and you complete it in 24 hours. Mmmm I don't know it sounds like a challenge. Scavenger yells at us both in her British accent isn't fucking walking 2000 miles challenging enough? We laughed maybe she's right but it's something to think about and keep on back burner. Bedtime for us all now. Tomorrow is gonna be a big day and they are calling for thunderstorms.