Date: 2005-09-25
From: South of Dismal Creek Falls, VA

To: Near Chestnut Knob Shelter, VA
Miles today: 41.5
Weather: overcast clouds

41.5 miles todayNear Chestnut Knob Shelter, Va. Thanks George and Ginny Fisher!!! That was awesome trail magic and it came at a great time...right in the middle of a long day when I was getting worried about running out of water. I slept great last night. I wanted to get an early start today because I was planning a long day. I woke up at 3:30am first, but that was to early and I was still tired, so I fell asleep again until 5am. I made my coffee and ate 2 Little Debbies fried pies for breakfast. I was packed and walking at 5:55am and got to listen to an owl as I was leaving my tent spot. I was 1.3 miles north of Rt 606 last night. It was about a 300 foot down to cross the road, then about 700 feet back up again on the other side. I had another 300 foot climb from there. It started getting light enough to see without my headlamp by then. There was a 500 foot down to Rt 608, then 500 foot back up to Jenny Knob Shelter. I stopped there and finally got to use one of my new smiley face stickers in the register. :-))) I hiked on and at 9:30, I saw the only deer I would see today. She ran up the hill a ways, then stopped and watched me walk by. I kept walking and passed by Helvey's Mill Shelter without stopping because it was .3 miles off the trail. There was a note on the post at the turn that there was water there though. I was coming down to the road to Bland which was about 19 miles into my day and I was starting to get low on water. I figured I'd conserve what I had for another 8 miles to Little Wolf Creek because I wasn't going into Bland this time. I was walking along thinking about how thirsty I was getting and I saw a note on a post before I got to the road. It said; "Stumpknocker." I opened it and it was from George and Ginny Fisher of Bluefield, Va. It said that they hid a cooler for me in the woods. I went and found it and there was 2 quarts of chocolate milk, 2 cokes, 4 snickers and 2 Yuenglings...all on ice!!! They also left a gallon of water. That really came at a great time and was totally unexpected. I sat there and downed both quarts of chocolate milk first, then a coke. I ate a couple snickers and filled my water bottles and drank the rest of the water. I didn't realize just how thirsty I was and it was all so good. :-))) I got there at 11:55am and stayed for about 20 minutes before hiking on. I packed out a Yuengling for tonight and I knew that the only hiker coming behind me was Blaze, so I left him a Yuengling and a coke and 2 snickers. George and Ginny, I can't thank you enough. That was awesome trail magic!! I hiked on with a full belly. :-))) I love the walk south of Bland because it's mostly sidehill trail for 4 or 5 miles. I had a couple little 300 to 600 foot ups and downs before I started walking by Little Wolf Creek. That's the creek that you have to cross about a dozen times in a little over 2 miles. I had an easy time going through the creek area because the water was so low. There was water flowing, but I was able to walk across the creek's rocks without slowing down. Then I climbed back up to the top of Brushy Mountain. From there, I went down about 600 feet to Jenkins Shelter where I ate an early dinner. I ate 3 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I ended up staying there for 30 minutes and I got to sign another register. I took my shoes off and let my feet cool down while I was eating. I had to stop and take a roofing nail out of my shoe shortly after I left the shelter. It was sticking right through my shoe and just barely was sticking my foot. I had a 1600 foot climb up to the ridge that goes to Davis Farm Campsite. There was a nice breeze blowing on the ridge when I got up there which felt great. I knew this ridge had lots of rocks and it is about 5 or 6 miles long, so I wanted to get through as many of the rocks as I could before it got dark out. The rocks were even harder to walk on this time because there was alot of leave fall already on the ridge that covered most of the rocks. I had to walk slower just because I couldn't see what I was stepping on. I ended up only having to walk over about 2 miles of the rocks in the dark. The rocks make it alot harder walking after dark because you have to really watch what you're doing. I came off the ridge to Walker Gap and decided to try and find the spring. I got lucky and was able to find it in the dark, so I filled up my water bottles before climbing 1000 feet up to Chestnut Knob Shelter. When I got to the shelter at 8:40pm, the door was latched. I couldn't believe it...there was someone in there. I walked all day and never saw a person and I knew the next sobo was still 2 days ahead of me. It was a former thru hiker that has a few days off work and just wanted to get away. His name is Lone Wolf '99, but not the one from Damascus. We talked a while and I signed the register and then I hiked on down to the woods and set up my tent. It was pretty hard finding the trail when I left the shelter because a cloud had blown in and I couldn't see but just a couple feet in front of me. I finally found the trail and when I found a flat spot, I took it. I ate a few snacks and enjoyed that Yuengling I packed out from the trail magic today. :-))) It was 11pm when I finished my journal and turned off my headlamp for the night. This was a fantastic day!!