Date: 2008-04-16
From: Comfort Inn Daleville VA 

To: Wilson Creek Shelter VA
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: clear sky

Day 59 ¢ Wednesday April 16 ¢ Wilson Creek Shelter VA ¢ Miles Today: 11.2 Total Miles: 727.9We planned a short 11-mile hike today so we had a leisurely morning around the motel, enjoying 2 trips to the continental breakfast! It was not nearly as good as the Holiday Inn Express¢ breakfast but it was good enough for us. At 10:30 we left the motel and started our 34-mile walk along a busy road back to the trail. We hoped for a hitch but were not taking the time to solicit one, as the walk to the trail was just 15 minutes. No one provided any unsolicited hitch for us this time. Oh well.   Although we were back on trail, it took quite a while to get away from the I-81 noise. The noise, the car fumes, and the hustle and bustle of the city are just not what we are accustomed to anymore. Eventually we hiked far enough into the woods to escape the ¢city¢ life. It felt great to be back in the quiet of nature again. We hiked through more private property today including a cow pasture. However, instead of cows chasing us today, we had 2 little terrier dogs chasing us right before the pasture. We quickened our pace to the stile. Up and over the stile we went thinking we were now safe, as the dogs wouldn't be able fit underneath the barbed wire. Yeah, right. Little did we know the little rascals got under the wire and were trying a sneak, stealth attack on Brakeman. Luckily after about 50 yards, Brakeman heard something, turned around and saw the attackers. Brakeman just glared at the dogs and they went scurrying back in the opposite direction. Man versus 2 little terrier dogs standing a foot tall. Man wins, but not without some sweating. Grasshopper is actually not sure if it was Brakeman¢s glare or his smelly feet that sent the dogs running for their life! Shortly after that, we passed a southbound hiker.   We inquired if he was hiking alone today, but he said there were 2 other guys a ways behind him. We asked if he had any messages for them and suggested that perhaps he would like to call them Girl Scouts. He thought that was a pretty good idea, so we headed on looking for the 2 slower hiker dudes. 15 minutes went by - nothing. 30 minutes - nothing. 1 hour - nothing. At this point in time we became a bit irritated that our fellow hiker did not trust us and made up a story of being with other hikers for safety purposes. Dang, man, we¢re 2 middle-aged gray-haired hikers that could not hurt a flea. It irritated us quite a bit that we did not look trustworthy enough for him to answer the hiking solo question truthfully. We were quite discouraged. But then 1.25 hours after we passed him, we ran into his 2 hiking partners. Whoops, guess he was not telling us a story after all.   We had to take back all those nasty names we called him. His partners explained to us the latest turn of events that caused them to hike separately.   About a week ago, the solo hiker gashed his leg snowboarding and required stitches. During this hike, he realized his stitches were infected, so he was hurrying into Daleville to get to a doctor. His 2 buddies were making a leisurely day out of the hike today to allow him time to get into the doctor and back out to the trail.   Whoops, sorry dude. We passed the official 1/3-way point today at 3:00 p.m. so we stopped and celebrated with a handful of M&Ms ¢ Woo Hoo! We arrived at the Wilson Creek Shelter about 5:00 and were joined by 6 guys from the Raleigh area, who were out for a several day hike. We spent quite a bit of time talking to them before they headed southbound for 2 more miles to a camping area. Their animated stories about their NASCAR Petty School experience at the Charlotte Motor Speedway were hilarious. Grasshopper¢s 3 brothers are doing the Petty School next week so we shall see if they also have quite the fun experience. We have a confession. We have CGSD, Compulsive Grocery Shopping Disorder. The $100 worth of food that we bought for the day and a half in the motel and 4 days of hiking was just a tad bit too much. Well, that may be a slight understatement! We're humping an entire extra package of Oreos, 10 extra sandwich wraps, an extra pound of cheese and an extra pound of summer sausage! (laughing!)   We need to learn to pace ourselves when we go to the grocery store! Perhaps there's a course on the Internet for CGSD that we can sign up for on our next stop. Oh well, live and learn.Since we're carrying a ton of extra food, we had bagel sandwiches for dinner rather than a hot meal. The summer sausage and Monterey Jack cheese bagel sandwiches were very tasty. We could see the 6 guys we were talking to eyeing us the entire time we were eating them. Did we offer any to them?   Heck no, we aren¢t fools! We¢re thru-hikers, they are just weekend hikers. They will have unlimited quantities of food soon enough. Around 7:00 we heard more hikers arrive and lo and behold, it was Turtle and Snickers from Colorado! We had last seen them probably about 5-6 days ago. They had a very short stay in Daleville, arriving at 8:00 last night and departing at lunchtime today. Due to their limited stay in Daleville, they were able to make up the 1.5 days difference that separated us! We discussed our next resupply points with Turtle and Snickers. They are humping 10 days of food to Waynesboro because they are not confident in their hitchhiking abilities. We're carrying 4 days of food to Glasgow, will hitch 4.5 miles in and out of town for our food purchase, and then will carry about 4.5 days of food to Waynesboro. Hopefully our hitch works well. If not, maybe we'll be begging food from them.It's almost 8:30. It's a beautiful evening - just below 60 degrees with clear sky, which we had all day.Good night.