Date: 2004-04-19
From: USFS 222/USFS 625

To: Va. 42
Miles today: 6.5

We all got up and had our breakfast and got into the minivan to take a ride to USFS 222/VA 625. We all got on the trail at 10:10am, so it not an early start. We only have 6 miles to get back to the car on Va 42, but we should do an additional 3 miles with a very easy shuttle, except Bill and Bob may want to head home, and no idea what Carol's plans are. The trail today is an old woods roads and railroad beds and following an old stream. Billy fills us in on trail maintenance tips the whole way, bobby's stories are fun to listen to, but he can really make a story out of almost anything, about a log he cut six years ago. We love his North Carolina accent. Its been real nice, we stopped at a campsite to rest and talk to a hiker, and then Mr blue eyes from yesterday came by. The campground area is called the $100,000 bridge. Dragon Slayer and Wicked Lobster came by with their black lab named Buddy. Wicked Lobster is doing a GPS survey for Backpacker Magazine. We are going to be looking for that. We saw a four foot black snake and also a minor bridge that was washed out over a creek, which amazed Billy and Bobby. More work for Piedmont Trail Crew. With a terrific accent terry says ¢the more I talk to Bobby the more my southern accent comes back¢.  We eventually got up to the top of the first Mountain. We stopped at the crest for a break and food.  We kept walking and came across a whole bunch of thru-hikers. Ones we have met several days ago while doing Trail maintenance. One group of four hikers we only got the name of one hiker, which we knew, Trail Lite.  We passed the Mad German. We didn't recognize him until Billy told us what his name was. Billy talked to Feathers and Wings for a while and then we talked to them for a while. Then we talked to Boxtop who we didn't recognize until he said, "is your car black or is your car White". We had talked to him the first work day with the Piedmont Trail Club and told him "we have a rental car parked on VA 601". But we couldn't remember what color the rental car was that day, black or white. It was funny.  We finally got to the Knot Maul Branch shelter. Bill gets out his peanut butter and crackers and starts in on his second lunch.  We met an older gentleman Jingling Jim, He is section hiking his second year and now at 530 miles. He's kind of like us, except Backpacking each section. He was from Ohio. We read from our data book at one point that there were 1.9 miles to go, But bill says, oh no, it's more like 2 miles from here. He says they've made some small relocations in this area. But that's just the way Bill is. We came out to VA 42 at about 4:40pm and stood around talking.  We did one mile per hour for six and a half hours, but Billy and Bobby were doing trail inspection as we hiked. We said good bye and a heart felt thank you to the Piedmont Trail Crew. Then we went up to USFS 625 and got the minivan. Took a different way across the mountain.  More notes about the hike up to Knot Maul Branch shelter. There was a guy up there, his Trail name was Running Bear. We did call Tom Richey and arrange to meet him tomorrow morning in Damascus for a shuttle at 8 a.m.  Tonight we are in  Virginia at the Super 8 Abington at 8 p.m. Took a shower, went over to Shoney's just up the road. Had a nice supper, got back to the hotel.