Date: 2014-05-11
From: Howard Johnsons in Dalesville

To: Wilson Creek Shelter
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: scattered clouds

A big Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there. I know without the love and support of mine I would never have been blessed with the life I have had. Made my calls to those special mothers to let them know I was thinking of them. I hadn't slept well the night before thinking about the schedule for the next 2 weeks and meeting up with Terry and Daniel. In addition to that, the people in the hotel room next to us were up quite early and were a bit loud. Oh well, Gray Ghost and I decided to enjoy the breakfast that came with the hotel. Unfortunately it was what one would call limited. It only had waffles and eggs along with a variety of cereal, bagels and juices. The bowls for the cereals was about cup size. Needless to say my breakfast consisted of bagels and cream cheese and OJ. We then headed out to Kroger's to resupply which is always difficult when you're not sure of the layout of the store and what it is you really want to carry for the next few days. This week I am trying something new. I am pre-making my sandwiches and including butter with canola oil using thin sliced bagels with peanut butter for breakfast and ham and cheese for dinner. I will continue to snack on bars throughout the day for my lunch along with using up whatever peanut butter I don't use with the sandwiches and mixing it with the leftover butter. I'm doing this to try and bolster my calorie intake because despite eating a great deal while in town I know I am still losing weight. It will be interesting to see when I get to Terry's how much I'm down to. So far it hasn't negatively impacted my hiking as I am still averaging around 16 - 18 miles a day. After resupplying it was back to take a shower and repack my backpack. In the meanwhile, Gray Ghost had gone to the local health clinic to get some things checked out and it was back to Kroger's to get his script filled out. As I have said before, its amazing how much we have and so little time to do it all in when we do get into town. We never really "relax" per say, but do enjoy the amenities! We got back on the trail around 1220 and the climb was not too bad but was a bit oppressing with the temperature hovering in the high 80's and to top it all off the *&^% rocks were back in abundance. There were no pics today as the leaves have fully popped here and the views are quite limited. It does help though by shading us from the sun. We got into camp about 5 hours later and it was a pretty nice shelter. A lot of people are tenting as there are many people here tonight with a mixture of thru hikers and section hikers. Tonight is the first night I slept without my rain fly on. It was great to view the leaves in the trees and the stars in the sky. It also allowed for a nice breeze to flow through keeping me comfortable despite my 20 degree sleeping bag that I basically just slept on top of. Can't wait to get to Daniel's and go to REI and see what they have. Oh forgot to mention that I got a nice call from my favorite bartender today Steve Z. It was really nice of him to reach out and say hi. Looking forward to drinking one of awesome Margaritas when I get home!