Date: 2008-04-10
From: Va Road 611 (3 mi. south Jenny Knob)

To: Holiday Motor Lodge (Pearisburg
Miles today: 33.9

Last night I heard something rustling around in the leave. I'm not sure what animal it was but it didn't come close to the tent. I got up at 600am and packed up the tent. I had pop tarts for breakfast and I was off by 730am. It wasn't so bad of a climb to the shelter. I got there in a hour so I decided not to stop and I pressed on to the next road. When I got to the road I went a half mile west up to Trent's Grocery store. I grab some snack and they had a grill there so I ordered a bacon swiss burger and chili cheese fries. When I headed back up the trail I realized that I ate too much when I felt my lunch was coming back up. I was able to chew it back and keep climbing. I made it to wapiti shelter by 300pm to take a break. There wasn't a trail registry so I wasn't able to sign in. I was only there for a few minutes and headed off to Doc Knob Shelter. It was a steep climb out of Wapiti shelter but it was very long. A few miles before I got to Doc's Knob I hit a field of rocks and boulders. Climbing over rocks are hard on your feet and it slows you down because the rock spacing dictates your stride. I got to Doc's Knob at 600pm and got water and ate again. I signed the registry and took off to Pearisburg. (9 miles away) About half way there my feet were hurting and I felt my blisters on my heels start to reform. I stop to tape them up but I feel the damage was done. Well too late to turn around so I kept on moving. It was nearly dark and I was climbing up Pearis Mtn, when I saw a dark shadow moving up ahead about 75 meters. It's a bear! I froze. My first instinct was to scare it away by smacking my trekking poles together and making a lot of noise. It started to mooove around and it didn't seem afraid of me but when it turned his head I realized it wasn't a bear, it was a black cow. Boy did I feel silly and relieved. I guess between the low light and being by myself, my mind was playing tricks on me. I climb the rest of the way up the Mtn and took a picture of the cow. I named him Mr. Bearington, and told him that he frightened me and not to do it again. He said sorry, I just broke out of the farmitentiary and was heading south to Mexico, where he would open up a bar and restore old boats. I said good luck to you, it's getting dark and I have to get going. As I left I hoped he was able to elude the co co's (That's slang for cowboys). I had no time to ponder I needed to get to town. As I got to the 3 mile decent into town it was dark. I got out my headlamp and started my decent. It was steep at times but turned into gradual switchbacks. Half was down I heard something walking in the leave to the right of me. I made a bunch of noise and it ran off. It was probably a deer or I would like to think it was. I finally made it into town at 945pm and headed up the road to the hotel. On the way I saw Hardee's and decided to pick up dinner there. I won't tell you what I got it will just make you hungry. The first hotel I went to had no vacancy but the second hotel was able to find me a room. First thing I did when I got to my room was call me wife and let her know I was all right. Then I ate my food and took a shower. It was a long day and I was glad I was sleeping inside, not in a mousey shelter and eating fast food, not dehydrated food. Hopefully I'll dream about Mr. Bearington's escape for Shawshank.