Date: 2009-05-10
From: USFS 86

To: VA 42
Miles today: 19.2

Well what is the rush to the car all about?? On the trail is a restaurant called the HOMEPLACE in Catawba,VA. It is only open on Thursday, friday, Saturday and Sunday and it has the reputation of having the best food on the trail. I could not go there when I passed it a couple of weeks ago because I passed Catawba on a wed. Redhat had wanted us to slow down so we could make it there on Thursday but I was not into slowing down. When Redhat drove me back to Damascus we drove by Catawba but the restaurant was closed that day. Now if I missed going there on Sunday I would not get another chance because it would be closed on monday. This was the big incentive to keep moving ( it doesn't take much to make you obsess on food out here).I woke up early and was on the trail by 4:30 am. I used my headlamp and walked two hours before the sun made my headlamp redundant. There was a full moon but it was also cloudy so it didn't help much. Night walking is a different experience and it just happens that you cross rocks and mud and rivers without incident. When the weather gets hotter this will be a choice many hikers make ( hike early, siesta when it is hot, hike late). I thought for sure I would see some animals in the dawn but no luck as the sun came up. Then it happened a big rabbit ran up the trail in front of me, a bit later a deer took off on my left. I was feeling pretty good as I entered some rolling fields with grass higher than my knees. the trail passes through the field and over some railroad tracks and a boardwalk over a marsh. I was heading into Atkins or at least to the road in Atkins where there was a convenience store and coffee!As I came down the trail I noticed a black bear on the trail about 50 yards in front of me. I stopped. I clacked my two hiking poles together so the bear would know I was there and he turned and looked at me. We stared at each other for a few seconds and then he was gone like a flash down the path away from me. Unfortunately for the bear (who was pretty big)the path abruptly ended at the road and he had to turn and run down the road. I was later told that he tried to run back into the woods and hit a fence so he had to go down the road a bit farther before he was back in the forest. I came off the path and crossed the street and 2 men were looking up the road and asked "did you see that bear?"See him, I chased him off the path and other hikers started calling me BEAR CHASER. It was the big excitement on this early Sunday morning at the Atkins Shell station.I enjoyed an OJ,a coffee and a tuna sandwich for breakfast and continued my hike. I had almost 10 miles done by 8am and had 10 more to go. The trail led across cattle grazing fields and some of the cows were on the trail but reluctantly made room as I passed them. The Virginia farmland is just beautiful especially from a high point in a field you just crossed looking down on the farm and field and trees and rivers etc. It is so 3 dimensional an experience we just don't get in flat Texas. I kept passing and being passed by YAK an older hiker from Massachusetts and Stats a younger hiker. YAK is planning on retiring and moving to Nova Scotia so we had a good talk about the pace of life in that Canadian province. This came abvout because a Canadian Goose flew overhead and YAK said ," Darn Canadians,I can say that until I become one". Then he explained his plans to move North because his wife is from Nova Scotia.Finally after 9 hours of hiking I arrived at the spot where 3 weeks earlier Redhat and I had started hiking North, VA Highway 42. Now a quick 2.5 mile walk down the road and up a long gravel road to my car. Mac, the owner of the new hostel was gracious to let me keep my car on his land for 4 weeks. Unfortunately construction on his get away home/hostel is behind schedule (no plumbing yet) so his plans for opening as a hostel have been postponed until next year.My Car, My Car, My stuff, Clean clothes WOW.I drove about 75 miles and arrived at The Homeplace around 4 pm. It was not what I expected as it was a huge victorian house with the grounds being used as a parking lot and dozens of people on the porch and grounds waiting to eat. I cleaned up as best I could ( new socks and shoes and shirt) and walked in to get on the list. "One" I said "unless you have other hikers I could sit with". In a flash I was seated with two other hikers, Jeremiah Johnson (looks like him) and Rolling Stone. They had waited about an hour and a half to be seated because they were only a party of two. This was a homestyle restaurant and serving one or two was difficult for them while parties of 10 and 12 were their specialty. The place was packed and I was lucky to get seated so quickly, getting up at 4 am was worth it. The Homeplace serves two meats or three meats and everyone at the table must have the same. My fellow hikers had ordered the 3 meats so we were served Roast Beef, Country Ham and Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes and Gravy, green Beans, pinto Beans, Cole slaw, and baked apples.This was accompanied by a pitcher of Lemonade and a pitcher of Iced Tea and great biscuits. To finish the meal we had strawberry cobbler and ice cream. All for a total of $14 each including tax. What a deal, what a meal.Now that I am fed and in my car I have driven back up to the Waynesboro area where I had left the trail last week. I will probably take a zero day on monday because it is scheduled to rain again. So officially I am back on track and have hiked to mile 51.7 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. 786.5 miles , more than 1/3 of the way to Maine.The Town of Damascus holds traildays every year and I plan on going there on Wed evening. So once again I will be taking a short break from the trail but the last few days where I completed 87 miles in 4 days shows me that my pace is picking up. Katahdin on my birthday ,Aug 15th??? Maybe , I thought it was impossible and was looking towards Sept. but with more long days it may be doable.O.M. River