Date: 2006-10-27
From: pearisburg

To: pearisburg
Miles today: 0.0

======2003====== tuesday, april 15, day 53what a WONDERFUL ¢off¢ day we have had here in pearisburg!.....it was a ¢lazy¢ sort of morning....spent our time just reading and having breakfast (banana-coconut-everything-leftover-in-our-packs-sort-of-bread-pudding-kind-of-gruel !.....surprisingly, the hot, sweet stuff tasted pretty yummy!)....afterwards, we had a very pleasant walk into town via the neighborhoods.....we couldn¢t have received a nicer ¢gift¢!....folks were out gardening....things were blooming.....but it did make us just a little bit homesick for our own neighborhood and garden....we headed on over to the laundry where killeen finished reading ¢christy¢.....and then over to the long-anticipated lunch at pizza hut!....i¢m embarrassed to admit that we nearly made ourselves sick eating the buffet!....it was AYCE from 12 until 2....and that¢s exactly what we did! we ate all that we could from 12 until 2!...whew!it didn¢t take us long to ¢recover¢, however, once we were back at the hostel....while our pizza morphed to ¢hiker fuel¢, killeen did a little more reading and i wrote in the register about Passion Week.....AND we drank LOTS of ice water! (amazing how something so simple can be such a treat!...i didn¢t know i missed ICE so much!.....we lounged around in the grass all afternoon just enjoying the spring that painted the hills and mountains all around us....but i soon got my mom and dad on my mind (had spoken with them earlier on the phone at the laundry)......they seemed fairly well, i guess....but we talked about easter and i reckon it got me a little more homesick......pictures of past easters with all of us gathered round their table, laughin¢ and sharin¢ stories and indulging in deviled eggs and ham made me wonder a bit what in the world i was doin¢ out here away from all that!this other hiker here got me a little down, too, i guess...though not intentionally, i¢m sure, but he kept incessantly talkin¢ about all his troubles and the really tough parts of the trail that were ahead....(uuughhh!)....but killeen was SO sweet and encouraging to me as we lay in the grass....he helped me to get back on track thinkin¢ about good things....his quiet smile and his long toes wriggling in the cool, green grass worked wonders to lift my spirits!as i was stretched out on the lawn there, lookin¢ up at the clouds lazily floating across the deep blue sky, i was reminded of when i was a little girl and would lay in the grass on our hill at mauldeth rd.......i KNEW then, God was real!....i could look up at the sky and actually feel His presence!....no one had to preach me a sermon....no one had to hand me a tract or a bible....He ¢spoke¢ to me through His world!......He still does!....and i¢m glad i still can know His presence in my life!the lilacs (like the ones here at the hostel) are prettier here in this part of the country than they are at home....(i think they appreciate a little more northern latitude).....i forgot to mention that we were also able to go to the library in town and get our e-mail....there were also a couple of great little ¢sermonettes¢ by pastor eric ....one was about how Christ transforms us from being ¢weak and weary¢(good to hear!).....another centered around the rather strange question Jesus asked the crippled guy at the pool of bethsaida : ¢do you WANT to be well?¢...(good question!....do WE want to be ¢well¢?)......there was also some stuff on there about the Holy Week schedule at rcf which served mostly to increase my nagging case of homesickness....Lord, help us to be where YOU want us to be for easter.....make us ¢well¢....increase our joy....put Your abundant Life INSIDE of us!======2006====== wednesday, april 5, day 53 (about 17.5 miles from niday to a stealth camp over the ridge past VA 624 )again....an almost perfect day! (if it hadn¢t been for the wind).....but God knows what He¢s doing.....i thought about how miserably hot it probably would¢ve been without the stiff winds.....they continue here tonight....in fact, they¢ve been howling for 2 whole days....non-stop....probably 30-40 mph gusts....strange.....otherwise, it¢s been really beautiful, so it¢s hard to complain....we are down here on the little ¢redbud creek¢ by the bridge (in a cowpath!)....it¢s down from the ¢dogwood meadow¢ where we camped in ¢03.....i was okay with bein¢ under the first pine tree we came to, but paw-ee kept lookin¢ around till he found this way better spot up stream here a little...i reminded him that as always when we¢re hiking, he¢s my ¢hero¢......it¢s been such a nice evening....first we were able to walk down to the catawba grocery (?) and get hamburgers for supper (i added a hotdog to mine!)....we even had a little ¢entertainment¢ there when a cop pulled a guy over for speeding!....then we ended up here at this nice stealth camp on soft pine needles which should make for some great sleeping..... even had a shower!......we didn¢t get in until about 6:00, but we didn¢t have to cook supper and since the stream was right here, paw collected water so i was able to enjoy my very COLD shower! (wind on top of mountain stream water?....brrrrr!)....still....it was refreshing and i think it has helped me to think about comfortably settling in for a really good night¢s rest!)my dreams, at least, should be good tonight (if they¢re anything like our day today!)...we finally began to see some wildflowers!.....after we left niday, we walked across a beautiful little stream valley and saw trout lily growing there!....we were also surprised by david just coming out of the woods where he had camped the night before....it was nice to talk to him briefly before he flew on past us up the mountain....we also saw some violets and the beautiful and bright little polygala there.....we had good switchbacks goin¢ up the mountain and decided that switchbacks were definitely the way to enjoy climbing a mountain!.....made for a ¢no nonsense¢ challenge, paw said......we passed up an opportunity to view the audie Murphy monument at the top (as we feel that it really doesn¢t have much to do with hiking the AT).....we then hiked on up to the dragon¢s tooth (one of our very favorite places!) and saw lots of lyonia in bloom there...(we had fun comparing its leaves to that of mountain laurel!).....on the way down we saw plenty of bird¢s foot violets (below dragon¢s tooth, there¢s one bank that¢s literally COVERED in them!).....the ¢rock garden¢ below the tooth is one of the most beautiful places on earth in my opinion!....paw saw a little pine ¢bonsai¢ growing out of a rock there....i was enthralled by the ENTIRE scene!....there are so MANY beautiful evergreen shrubs nestled along the trail there as it meanders in and out of mossy boulders, ferns, reindeer moss, pine and serviceberry!....oh! the serviceberry has been spectacular today!.....sometimes it framed a view to a little farmhouse valley green with the spring....sometomes it stood out against the backdrop of a distant charcoal gray mountain......sometimes it shouted ¢purity¢ and ¢spring¢ and ¢joy¢ against a deep, deep blue, cloudless sky!at the end of this ¢blossom-y¢ day, even as we came back from the grocery along the road, we saw bloodroot, believe it or not, growing in the gravel on the shoulder there!....very odd....i suppose no one ever really sees them in that location except hikers who must walk there....and then on the way up the ridge, we saw lots more trout lily and hepatica!....yep!....it was definitely a ¢wildflower day¢!we met one family coming up the rocks to dragon¢s tooth (as we descended)....after we passed them, i took it upon myself to pray for their safety....it¢s not the easiest of climbs and it was obvious they were pretty tired....i hope, though, they had as much fun as we have had at dragon¢s tooth!we purchased quite a bit of stuff at the store (even got some ham and cheese sandwiches to go along with our breakfast in the morning!)....it really was nice not to have to COOK supper tonight!.....tomorrow, we have macafee knob and tinker cliffs!...woo hoo!...God is so good is all i can say!.....oh....i saw a trout swimming in a stream today.....and a beautiful horned lizard with a bright blue throat! (he even posed for me while i took his picture!)