Date: 2008-04-08
From: Wapiti Shelter VA

To: Unnamed Campsite VA
Miles today: 13.6

Day 51 ¢ Tuesday April 8 ¢ Unnamed Campsite VA ¢ Miles Today: 13.6 Total Miles: 621.0Today started as every other day has for about the last 6 days - gray in the morning. This time though we had a slight mist with our gray morning. Obviously, it misted quite a bit overnight as the tent was very wet as was the ground and leaves. We found a little Trail Magic today! ¢Little¢ is the key word but the littlest things mean so much to us out here, especially when we know that we walked right by a 6-pack of coke yesterday! Today we were more diligent in looking for Trail Angel opportunities and Brakeman found it this time. The Trail Magic was 2 bite-sized pieces of chocolate - a milk chocolate almond nugget and a Snickers bar just laying on a sawed-off tree stump that we walked by. So very cool! We checked the wrappers and all was fine except for a little mouse nibbling on the corner of one. Not to worry, we simply took out our pocketknife, shaved off that corner and enjoyed our sweet surprise. We jokingly stated that perhaps it was Josh and Amanda who had left the magic for us as in Damascus we made a guest book entry on their website stating that they needed to take care of their elders who were trailing them by 2 days by clearing the trail a bit more. We also told them that we were most discouraged with their lack of respect for their elders. So perhaps they're treating us with a little more respect after all.   A very sweet surprise, from an unknown Trail Angel. Brakeman thought it may be part of a Federal study ¢ planting food and watching how thru-hikers react to it!Around 1:30 the blue sky came out and we had sunshine for the rest of the day. Apparently, the forecast is that this will continue through Thursday. It's only Tuesday, so may have a couple more days of this. Speaking of surprises, the other thing we saw just a couple miles short of our camp as we rounded up a hill, was a big black animal laying about 2-3' off the trail. Grasshopper stopped dead in her tracks and said to Brakeman, "Look at that!!¢ Unfortunately, it wasn't a bear, which is always great excitement, but a cow! There are several cow pastures below the ridge, down huge, huge drop-offs. The only thing we can think of is somehow the cow wandered up this steep mountainside and decided to hike the AT. We think she is a south-bounder based on the direction in which she is lying beside the trail, but we're not quite sure. We walked by slowly, talking softly to it so as to not startle it, but as we got closer, it sprung to its feet and moved away from us, but not far. One of our thoughts was perhaps she was injured but she seemed to be walking fine. If she's been up here for a while though, I would imagine she hasn't had a ton to eat or drink as this is ridgeline and there ain't much water and there ain't much food up here. Hope the little gal gets back down to her pasture soon and safely!We had planned on camping tonight at mile marker 621.1 where there is a spring and campsite about 800 yards off the trail. But when we arrived at the site, it was dark, damp and dingy so after filtering we decided to go back to the ridgeline and camp at a site we just walked by overlooking Pearisburg. Yes, we actually walked SOUTH for about 5 minutes to this awesome campsite and set up camp for the night. This is the first time we have ever backtracked to set up camp!While filtering water, a young couple doing a southbound section hike arrived. Every other word she said was ¢N ¢ I ¢ I ¢ I - C ¢ E¢.   Ah, our old minds say, ¢Nice¢ must be the new ¢Sweet¢ and we need to make a conscious effort to get with the program!   We don¢t want to give these young kids more evidence of our age by using the wrong lingo! We also learned from this young couple that the first shelter out of Pearisburg (Rice Field Shelter) is a very nice shelter, but the next one (Pine Swamp Branch Shelter) is actually roofless at the moment. Apparently a tree fell on the roof of the shelter while some hikers were staying in it. That's the end of the story so we're assuming that no one was injured. This must happen more often than we realize as last night¢s shelter had a puncture hole in the roof from a tree falling through it as well. There was a patch job, maybe 4' square, attempting to resolve the issue.   So I guess it's never quite safe out in these woods with trees falling. Tonight we're camping on a ridge overlooking Pearisburg at mile marker 621, just 3 miles short of Pearisburg. It's a gorgeous view - lots of rolling hills and green pastures with little specks of homes and towns. Pearisburg doesn't look like too big of a town. You can see for several, several miles and the next several mountain ranges are visible. Very windy but a great view.This evening in the tent, Brakeman was able to get hold of the Gregory Customer Service Warranty Department regarding his pack that is falling apart. They will ship us a loaner pack to Waynesboro! We are to ship his pack back and they will repair it if it is under warranty and if not, they will give us a call with an estimate on the cost to fix it. And then they will also give us a call as to when and where they will be mailing his repaired pack back to us. So hopefully things will work out well in that area.   It looks like Waynesboro is going to be a mighty busy stop for us. We have 2 new pair of shoes arriving as well as the loaner pack. We're heading into Pearisburg tomorrow with only one article of food left - our oatmeal for the morning. We'll hit a grocery store first thing and hopefully find lots of good treats to eat instantly as well as some food items to supplement our partial food drop. Then we're on to the motel where we'll pick up our food drop and head back to the trail. The 3 miles into town tomorrow will be a steep descent from 3600' to 2200'. Goodnight from just shy of Pearisburg, Virginia