Date: 2006-10-25
From: camp somewhere past helvey's mill shelter

To: wapiti shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: clear sky

======2003====== palm sunday, april 13, day 51didn¢t realize we had done 20 today till we got in and checked our mileage tonight....guess we feel alright, actually, for that many miles!...yea!....we will try for 16 tomorrow to pearisburg ....and AYCE PIZZA!....double yea!how can i describe this beautiful day?....paw said, spring was bustin¢ out everywhere!...and it was! guess it began even before daylight with the moon shining into our tarp....and then the sky all rosy with the dawn....we watched a country church in the valley as we followed the ridge (white, with a belfry and a green roof)...as we walked, the sun was shining through tender, new reddish leaves of the rusty blackhaw making them glow amber (rusty blackhaw is one of my favorite native trees...it reminds me of dogwood)....sometimes the leaves were bright, luminescent green....almost yellow.....the serviceberries were everywhere in bloom!....we saw bird¢s foot violets today and in some places bloodroot was still blooming.....the sky was deep blue and cloudless...and as we came into the valley (under a BIG oak limb that hung out over the trail begging a rope swing), the hills just seemed to BURST into all sorts of bud and blade and flower!....the creeks and streams and branches and ditches were ALL running with water!....we could hear cattle lowing....(in fact, as we crossed the swinging bridge at kimberling creek, we were startled to see two that had ¢escaped¢ .... a big ol¢black bull and his companion cow!)...paw made me think they were black bears, at first....(he likes to tease me since bears, as well as bulls, tend to make me a little nervous!)...anyway, as we walked toward them, the bull got rather ¢huffy¢.....he took a step or two toward us! (guess he was protecting his ¢woman¢ or something!).....i sure was glad when, at that moment, we were ¢saved¢ by 2 boys riding a 4-wheeler who sent those two hoofing down the road!...we were ¢front row¢ to our own private ¢rodeo¢!...crazy!the afternoon was easy walking...flat flat flat.....we traversed some beautiful sparkling stream valleys and pine forests...but we did finally start to get a little tired and ¢ancy¢ to get to the shelter.....after walking and walking and walking some more we began to wonder if we had somehow missed it.......we were really happy when we finally saw the sign pointing the way to our ¢home-sweet-home¢ here at wapiti!i guess there¢s not too much more to tell about our day....except that i caught myself thinking quite a bit on this palm sunday about Christ¢s ¢triumphal entry¢ into jerusalem.... ¢blessed is He who comes in the NAME of the Lord!¢ they sang...... and there it is again!....the NAME....the KNOWING!..... ¢hosanna!¢ the people shouted, as their King humbly rode into the city on the back of a donkey!...hosanna! (to be graciously inclined or propitious!).....WELCOME Him!....worship Him!======2006====== monday, april 3, day 51 (14.6 miles from bailey gap to the laurel creek shelter)started out the a.m. with a few piddly showers.....enough for ¢brollies¢.....but by midday, it had cleared off beautifully....deep blue sky and ¢florida clouds¢.....mmmmmm!we passed by ¢wind rock¢ today.....past the little ¢park¢ on the top of the ridge there where we camped down the trail a ways in ¢03....(about a half hour down past a sort of ¢meadow¢)....i¢ve tried so many times in reminiscing to help paw remember this place, but he could never quite ¢bring it up¢!....so it was fun to have been able to walk here again today to say, ¢THIS IS IT!....paw!....this is the place i¢ve been trying to remind you of!¢....and he remembered!*.....the walk after this campsite was also very vivid in my memory from ¢03....it was after we had stayed in under the tarp most of the morning because of the rain, and then got out when it let up a little to walk out, thankfully across LEVEL, foggy woods....for some reason, the general eastward direction remained strong in my mind, as well.....but i was surprised this time to encounter a sharp turn back toward the ¢west¢(that i had not remembered) and up and over the ridge (on the ¢wind rock¢ side)....these were rather ¢odd¢ woods there at the top before the descent down to war spur shelter......the area was rocky, with a few sort of ¢stunted¢ trees (more of the type you see up north where the mountaintop weather tends to ¢dwarf¢ the growing things)....these small trees were mostly bare hardwoods of some type, but a few firs (or spruce) and hemlocks sparsely dotted the ridgetop as well....we were able to have a nice break there and it wasn¢t long before the sun came out....between the sun and the break and the anticipation of a descent, we were more-than-ready to get hiking again!as we hiked down the mountain, the strangest thing happened....i had the very strong impression , ¢we¢re gonna have trail magic at war spur!¢....but rather than anticipate what ¢juicy items¢ might be there for our trail enjoyment, i started to remember some of the specific magic we benefited from in ¢03.....there were a few times that ¢magic¢ actually saved us from ¢starvation¢, or ¢exhaustion¢....i became wrapped up in fond memories and gratitude to a Savior who always provided for us through the wonder of the generosity of kind people all along the trail!......anyway, though i haven¢t really ever anticipated magic at the shelters, today the thought (MORE than mere wishful thinking), just popped into my head out of the blue....and so, happily, i wasn¢t surprised when we got to war spur and there on the shelf was MAGIC!.....there were several canned meals (which we couldn¢t use at the time) and a bag full of some cups of fruit!....paw-ee and i enjoyed one each of the peaches which seemed so juicy and tasty that we thought we¢d died and gone to heaven!....i was so thankful for that ¢non-dry, non-crunchy treat¢ that i prayed the Lord¢s greatest blessing on the people who left it!....i think it was probably a highschool for the arts that were our ¢benefactors¢.....they had also left instructions there for hikers to participate in the making of a quilt! (which we did!)....they had left squares of material and markers with the instructions to inscribe the squares with information about who we were, where we were from, and our impressions of the trail (along with any decorative artwork we wished to add)....of course, ¢xaipnrn¢ was the thing i chose to inscribe, along with something like, ¢it doesn¢t get any better than this!....(except maybe on the ¢New Earth¢!¢....then i colored it up all bright and cheery using their markers!....i think it would be fun to someday see the finished project........well, after another good rest (a POWER rest!)*....and PEACHES.....we were absolutely ready to ROCK!......but we had to cross a silly little 3-log bridge over a silly little stream and silly little me....well......no........i didn¢t fall in, but i was terrified i would! ...it WAS actually about a 4-foot drop and my fear was that with a pack and my rickety old bones, i might really injure myself! ...dangerous!......but i made it across okay with paw¢s encouragement (and a little ¢ribbing¢ as well)....i forgave his teasing pretty quickly, though, because there was beautiful and cheery, yellow-blooming spicebush all around to divert my ¢fury¢!.....i remained feeling only very ¢spring-time-y¢!our biggest surprise for the day, however, came after crossing the spicebush valley and realizing that we had a very big ¢bump¢ to go over.....it was just a gentle rise at first, but eventually got very steep!....we finally reached the top, though, and i just LOVED that place for some reason....(i think it really added up to the very strong Presence of my Creator there....mmmmm!...yes!...definitely the Presence of my Creator!)in a little while, though, the wind began to pick up and some very threatening black clouds started to gather in the east....one by one a few rain drops started to fall....so i started to pray....we were still 30 minutes away from the shelter, so we picked up our pace....as the clouds got blacker and the thunder started to rumble we began to ¢run¢ down the mountain...(neither of us are very fond of lightening on a ridge!).....we made it to the shelter JUST in time! (paw was even able to grab a bag of water before the ¢bottom dropped out¢!)red ranger (whom we met at springer) has made up the week that he started behind us! (wow!...he¢s FAST!)... and so, he is with us here tonight.....and dave, a new friend, is here as well...a young hiker who started in damascus.....*NOTES/OBSERVATIONS/COMPARISONS-----*paw remembered!......this would be the evening of ¢day 55¢ and the morning of ¢day 56¢ of our ¢03 hike...i don¢t know WHY i loved this place near ¢wind rock¢ so much or why it was so important for me to try to remember it with paw-ee....i guess i just never want either of us to forget a single, solitary blessing of hiking the AT!*power rest......we first read about how to ¢power rest¢ in ray jardine¢s ¢beyond backpacking¢ .... it¢s basically a matter of just elevating your feet while resting on your back....this can be done on the trunk of a tree or a rock or the walls of a shelter (as we did at the war spur shelter)...it¢s a simple, but amazing technique for re-circulating your blood and giving you an invigorating boost for more miles!