Date: 2003-05-16
From: Cornelius Creek Shelter

To: Thunder Ridge Overlook 
Miles today: 6.7
Weather: light rain

Well, I fell asleep last night, and missed the lunar eclipse. It's okay though, the clouds had returned, and the visibility was blocked by them, and the leaves on the trees.Knowing the hike today would be a relatively short one, I was in no hurry to get going this morning, especially since I had to put on my cold, wet hiking clothes. Yick. It wasn't as bad as I anticipated. I had put my bra in my sleeping bag, but left my shirt out to cut down on the funky smell in the sleeping bag. Hotdog and I were on the trail shortly after 8am.When we got to the place we thought the two guys from last night would leave Trail Magic, we looked around, but saw none. Oh well. I figured they were too tired and/or cold last night and decided not to. We kept hiking, climbing up Apple Orchard Mountain, the tallest between Chestnut Knob south of here and Mt. Moosilauke, NH. At the top, was a small meadow, with some buildings and radar equipment, probably left over from when it was an Air Force radar base. It was sunny on top, but foggy all the way around. I was hoping for a good view, but the fog is pretty cool too! Going down the north side, I encountered The Guillotine, the second of three places on the AT where the AT goes under rock. There was a huge boulder wedged between two larger ones, and I walked under, hoping it wasn't my time to be beheaded. All went well.Not far after, we came near the Blue Ridge Parkway, and just before crossing, there was a plastic bag hanging on a sign. Written on the bag was "WENCH". It was the name they remembered of the four of us at the shelter last night. Inside the bag were two bottles of Slice and a 6-pack of Budweiser. Trail Magic!!! I was totally NOT expecting it here! Our section-hikers from PA came through! Hotdog and I took one Slice, and a beer each, packed the Slice, but opened the beers. Mmmm.... It was only 10:30am, but had to be noon somewhere! We drank our beers as we walked the 0.3 to Thunder Hill Shelter. That hit the spot, especially knowing we only had 1.4mi from the shelter to go for the day. We took a break at the shelter, reading the register, finishing our beers and Slice. Fly and Smoothie have no idea they're ahead of us, but are catching on since they haven't seen our entries in the registers. Yesterday, Lite Shoe got off the trail where we plan to today, so we sh! ould be near each other Sunday when we return. Jason and Victoria, as well as thruhiker Greg were finishing up packing up and getting ready to hike north. We finished our break, had moved on, arriving at the Overlook just before noon.We were supposed to meet our ride between noon and 2pm. As we waited, the sun tried hard to come out and burn the fog off, making a little bit of success, as I saw blue sky once or twice. I took advantage of the sun's efforts and laid out my rain jacket, pack cover, and any other wet items to try to dry them. Hopefully the back pad on my pack will dry too, so it won't smell up the vehicle as much. When it's wet, it does NOT smell good! Then again, I don't smell so great myself. I changed into a dry shirt, hoping that will help. It probably won't.To pass time, Hotdog and I threw rocks at the garbage can or trees, journaled, etc. All we've been talking about for a few days is McDonald's food, and now I'm starting to drool! Last night I had my order figured out: 4 Cheeseburgers (no onion), large (or extra large) fries, and a coke and an orange soda. Since I already had an orange soda today, I'll probably just get one drink...a coke. Mmmm.... fries, burgers, soda.... Can't wait!Amy, from the hikersRus Yahoo group got to the overlook around 3:30pm, and being the Angel she is, she had a cooler with cold sodas, brownies and fruit! What a Goddess!It wasn't long before we were on our way to Damascus, but I was nearly carsick after the drive on the Parkway and other small mountain roads. I was glad to get to I-81. But not solely for the carsickness. We also stopped, in Daleville/Troutville of all places, at McDonalds! My meal turned out to be a Quarter Pounder w/Cheese, large fries and coke. When I was through with that, I had a cheeseburger too. It was good!Arriving in Damascus, none of us and a good idea of where things were, as far as camping area or vendor booths, so we just drove down the main street. We saw Lite Shoe at a payphone, found a place to park, and went to say Hello. Then we all headed to the park to walk around and see everything, and everyone.I met a lot of at-l and WomenHiker members, and that was very cool. Chase, Mrs.Gorp, Gary Roberts, POG, Ed Speer, Spur and Ready, Swallowtail, Shelly, Hopeful. It's great to be able to put a face with a name! We then headed for the camping area, which is rumored to be a Superfund clean-up site whose time to be "clean" is not up yet. Arriving after dark made it difficult to see people, and the whole setup, but we wandered around anyway. There are tents and cars and campfires and people everywhere!   In the back corner is the rowdy crowd: Billville and Hobo Central. Straight in is the supposed "quiet" area. People camped everywhere! It's crazy! I met Footslogger, who was on hikersRus. It was very cool to meet him, after all the emailing. I heard that Regan/f-stop is camping here somewhere too. Bumpkin is at a hotel. From behind me, someone says "Wench!" Yukon Rasputon! I hadn't seen him since right after the Smokies, around the time of the first snow. He finished up to Roan, and has a little bit to do in VT, then he's hiked all of the AT. He said Smokey T is here too. "Look for the fire in the woods." They always have a fire. Between looking for f-stop and the fir! e in the woods, we searched the whole place. I think. But we found neither.By this time, it was getting late, probably around 11pm. I got my pack out of the car, and headed over by Swallowtail to pitch my tent, then she, Shelly and I sat under a tarp talking. A thruhiker about a day behind me came over to chat, but it wasn't long before I was yawning way too much, and ended up climbing in my tent around midnight.I could still hear people talking nearby, and yelling off in the distance, plus occasional fireworks, but I put in my earplugs and drifted off anyway. What a day!