Date: 2008-05-21
From: Partnership Shelter

To: Davis Path Non Shelter
Miles today: 14.3

And you wonder why it takes me so long to update these things? I just read my last entry and it is insanely long! Oh well. I believe my efforts will be worth it in the end. I know my grandparents' read -- I LOVE YOU -- and occasionally the parental units. More than that, I know that at the end of the trip I will have this to read over and over again and I will appreciate my own tedious efforts. Sooooo.... back to the trail stuff. Today will be dubbed: The day I lost Kraut. It was a beautiful day and I really felt like I could hike forever. It must have been the pizza. Kraut was not ready to leave camp when I finally got up this morning. She wasn't feeling up to par and wanted to get a few hours of sleep after the crowds departed. I made my way out of camp solo thinking that Kraut would be only a few hours behind me (at most). I was having fun hiking and I took a few breaks to knock out a couple of my Sodoku puzzles and eat snacks in cool places. I stopped in a meadow for about an hour thinking surely Kraut would come wandering along as I sat there. No Kraut. Then I made my way to the interstate crossing and to my surprise I came across a gas station and a restaurant. Now, to the typical reader this may not sound too exciting... but a gas station and restaurant literally ON the trail means that I get food without HITCHING (and, as of late, that seems to be a good thing). So, I thought it would be perfect if Kraut and I grabbed an early dinner here and then knocked out a ton more miles post dinner because I was feeling so great. I posted myself with some fresh fruit and chocolate milk on the bench in front of the gas station and waited. And waited. Then a local came up to me and I got wind of some more local "drama". A man from Pearisburg, VA (not far off from where we are currently hiking) was in prison for the murder of two AT hikers some years back (20 or 30 or something). Not too long ago he was released and his picture was posted in trail hostels and warnings were written in trail registers all along the trail around the area. Sure enough, it wasn't all for naught because the man struck again, killing a guy fishing in the area. Part of the trail was closed pending the investigation. I would find out on a later date that several hikers were shuttled into Pearisburg because they could not go any further north on the trail until the road was reopened. I would also later find out that the man died in jail -- suicide. However, several locals made it a point to stop and forewarn me of the dangers on the trail. And here I am waiting for Sauerkraut who is 3 hours past her expected time of arrival. What would I tell her parents? At what point should I worry? Just as I was getting antsy and I picked up the phone to ask my mother for advise... guess who comes strolling up like she had just had a picnic in the local park. She had "overslept" which is rather humorous given the fact that we are on the trail and you really can't technically oversleep. There really is nothing to attend to aside from hiking and you can do that at any time of day or night, for any length of time, and at any pace. But, she managed to do it anyways. So, by the time she had strolled up it was far too late to get in the miles I had aspired to hike approximately 3 hours earlier. So, we acquired a hiker named Tetris and headed over to the restaurant for a good dinner. Then I strapped my leftovers to the top of my pack (spaghetti!) and we made our way to the next "shelter". I had to parenthesize shelter because it was in the process of being torn down (what gives?) and it had no roof or walls -- just a platform, which we used. Oh, and our bear bagging techniques have improved -- after our run in with the raccoon (I think I forgot to tell that story... eek) who ate our food (which is a heck of a lot LESS cool than a bear eating it) we have decided that burying the food under logs is a more optimal solution. I guess it would be best to actually HANG the bags -- but I am under the impression that the bear knows to look in the trees.