Date: 2003-05-03
From: Jerry Cabin Shelter

To: Hogback Ridge
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: light rain

start Jerry Cabin Shelterdestination Hogback RidgeI get to try my cream of coconut oatmeal I made up from a recipe I found on the internet before I left home. It is a hit with everyone who tastes it today. Yes, they all take a spoonful out of my bowl. We have a nice time sharing the daily devotional and my oatmeal. The memory verse is Proverbs 47:1. I have many miles to cover today.I am looking forward to going to church tomorrow both in the morning and evening. I have a mail drop in Erwin, so I have to hang around until the post office opens on Monday. I pass the Shelton Graves. It was a uncle and nephew, enlisted in the Union Army, on their way home to a family get together, they were ambushed and killed by Confederate soldiers. I catch up with most of the hikers that were in the shelter last night at lunch time. Since I am not hungry, I keep on going. Today I cross my first stile. It is simply a ladder type step that goes over fences. For awhile I hike in a more open terrain. Not like this morning where evidence of yesterday's storm was everywhere on the trail. In fact several times it was all I could do to get around blown over trees and limbs. Some of them were several inches in diameter. Large Rhododendren limbs twisted and broken. Several large branches out of pine trees snapped off. It made hiking tedious and slow. Finally though it was more open and I really enjoyed walking through the fields. It was in this open field that I came across a bunch of stones in the middle of the path. They spelled out the number 300. I have hiked 300 miles thus far! I shout and whoop and holler and do a little dance, strictly a little holy dance now. Not anything to get me in trouble with my pastor. Then I get all emotional and start crying. It is amazing to me that I have made it this far. There is only one big mountain to climb today and as it turned out I climbed it twice. I was doing pretty good, moving right along, and LoneWolf was behind me. I came to a cute little creek and stopped to wash my face and wet my bandana. I followed the trail around to the right and sure enough right in front of me was the long steep assent to the top of the mountain.I saw the white blaze and started up the trail. I went up and up and up. Since there was no other way to go, it was awhile before I noticed that I had not seen a white blaze in some time. But again, there wasn't any other place to go, so I kept going up. I come to a tree with a double white blaze on it, which means there is a turn coming up. I look to the left, sure enough there is another blaze. It is pretty faint, but it is a blaze so up I go. In fact I went up to the very top of the mountain, where the trail disappeared. Surely this was someone's idea of a cruel joke. Okay, don't panic. That is what I tell everyone else not to do. Sometimes though, I do not follow my own advice. But to my credit, I did not panic. At least not right then.I simply started back down the mountain, until I came to the last white blaze I had seen.Okay, here is the double blaze, and when I turn around there is a single blaze going up the mountain. Trouble is, I just came from up there and the trail disappeared. I stand there and ponder the situation. I look at my clock and I go in the opposite direction for 15 minutes. No blazes to be found. There is no way I am going back up that mountain alone, so I go back down some more to the next blaze I had seen. There again is a faint blaze on the tree. This is making me crazy. I begin to panic then. I have enough food for several days, and a filter for water, but then I wonder how long would it be before someone was to even come lookng for me? I am by now on the verge of tears. I contemplate just sitting down in the middle of the trail and waiting for someone to come by. It is however getting pretty late in the day. So I make another decision to go back to where I knew I was on the right trail. Of course, it is all down hill. It figures. I now find myself at the little stream where I washed my face! There is no level place to pitch a tent. As I sit on a log pondering my plight, I notice a trail off to the left. Just past a fallen tree over the trail is a white blaze! I do not know whether to laugh or cry. So I do both. I have now been hiking for 8 hours. I would by now be in Erwin. My feet feel like they have no soles left. Eventually I spy a hiker up in front off me. It is Lonewolf. He carries a 65 pound pack and is slow. He sits on a stump to rest and I catch up with him. He wants to know how I got in back of him. It is a long story I say. He looks at me and says, "You got lost didn't you?" We are both going to the same shelter tonight. It is way too late and I am way too tired to go the rest of the way into town. I am not sure how the conversation started, but pretty soon we were in a deep discussion about God and Jesus, salvation and other spiritual things. Had I had enough water, Iwould have camped way befoe I got to the shelter, but I was almost out of water, and there were no sources between us and the shelter, so I kept walking and talking. Lonewolf has had a sad life the last several years. He came out here to find God. Our conversation helped to point him in the right direction. As we got into camp, he told me that it was divine intervention that put me behind him to talk with him. I beleive that is right, but I told him that if God had of said "Terri, get behind Lonewolf and talk with him about me." I would have done it. At least I think I would have. God did not have to send me miles and hours out of my way to put me behind LoneWolf. I know there is a lesson in this for me, but tonight I am too tired to even think about what it might be. I collapse on the picnic table and everyone is surprized to see me. I explain that I got lost, then Lonewolf explains how God sent me to talk with him. Gazelle hands me the rest of her dinner, which she says she is through with. I gratefully accept it. In my fright, I had completely forgotten about lunch. Naomi takes my water filter and walks almost a half mile to the water source, bringing me back full containers of water. The hikers book says you may want to take a bottle of water to drink on your way to get water! It is a long trek. I am grateful for the kindnesses shown by these strangers.   Loser once again builds a fire and we sit around and listen to him play and sing until a shower forces them to the shelter and me to my tent. I am exhausted, but grateful that the Lord saw fit to allow me an opportunity to minister for him. I just wish he could have done it without me having to spend so long roaming around in the woods!total miles 14.6 plus another 5 or 6 bonus miles!