Date: 2005-05-19
From: Laurel Creek Shelter

To: Campsite before Audie Murphy Monument
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: broken clouds

We were bums again today...we left the shelter at 9:45. So far, Bug's new toy isn't working so well for us. For the first 600 miles, I continually asked him the time, so he used that as an excuse to purchase a watch with alarm, altimeter, barometer, time, and stopwatch on it, so that I could have his old one. The alarm works great, but we still just turn it off.Our day started with some nice downhill, we saw wild flame azaleas for the first time today (we've been seeing pink and white ones the last couple of days that smell so sweet).We then continued on to Keffer's Oak. This is the largest oak on the Southern AT. When last measured, its girth was 18 feet, 3 inches and is estimated to be about 300 years old. According to the thru-hikers companion put out by ALDHA, monster oaks were probably quite common in the Appalachians before Columbus arrived in America, but have since been logged and are now quite rare.   After a short siesta here, we continued hiking across pasturelands and slowly up Sinking Creek Mountain.As we approached the top of the mountain, we began to hear thunderstorms in the distance. This is never the most pleasant experience, as it usually means a wet Priss and Bug, and worse, a wet tent (a wet tent can add several lbs to the pack easy). Bug was pretty confident that it was still a ways off though. Even though this was the case, we were both very pleased when the trail left the exposed rock faces.Bug and I gradually made our way down towards Niday shelter. On our way there, we met a nice group of young fellows out for the week doing outdoor adventure training. When we arrived at the shelter we spoke with Swift and OC-1(?) who told us that the pretty, pink flower we saw just out of Pearisburg was actually quite rare. It is a lady slipper just like we spotted a few days ago, but instead of yellow it was pink. I guess I may not get to see another, but there is always hope. Chuckles and Gotta Go arrived, and we spent time visiting and cooking our dinner. We said our goodbyes around 5:30 and headed up the trail. Bug's feet are feeling ok, and we are trying to stay on schedule. By schedule, I mean the weekly schedule. Bug has decided to throw out the original itinerary (a freeing moment and one of growth for him). It was upsetting him to look at the original and know that we wouldn't and/or couldn't stick to it. So we have decided to give ourselves some structure week to week, but allow for change. Shortly after we left the shelter, it started to sprinkle. We gathered water at the road and kept on hiking. Bug's feet started to hurt more, but he was determined to hike until 7pm. We had agreed to hike until 7 and then start looking for a campsite. I was hiking ahead (very rare for me), and spotted a nice spot under pine trees that was relatively level and soft looking. We decided to set up camp there and we were right in time. Just as we set up our tent, the bottom dropped out. So now we are sitting in the tent listening to the rain come down and watching the lightning move across the sky. It is neat but also a little eerie to be able to see a storm moving in during the course of the day.