Date: 2004-06-20
From: Jim & Molly Denton Shelter

To: Sam Moore Shelter
Miles today: 25.8
Weather: clear sky

Jim & Molly Denton Shelter had a wrap around loft, a deck with railings and built in benches and an Adirondack style couch on the deck. It was surrounded by a grassy yard. In the yard there was a little pole barn with a picnic table in it. There was also a shower off in the woods a bit. Pretty fancy.With the crowd here it was a very early morning for me but that's ok.Finally, this had been a night in a shelter with a log book. It had been a while. Most of the Shenandoah shelters had not been right on the trail so my blinders kept me from them. There were also lots of full logs. It had been 3 or 4 days since my last log entry. It was nice to write again this morning. This was just a beautiful day to be hiking.This was the coolest morning perhaps since my first morning on the trail six weeks ago way back in the beginning of May. This was just a great hiking day. About 10 miles into the day there was a shelter called Dick's Dome 0.2 miles off the trail. That's that distance that leaves you scratching your head but with the word dome in the name there really wasn't much question. This place had to be checked out. In fact this was a small wooden geodesic dome. It was very strange. The Companion says it sleeps four and that's probably generous. A bag of gorp was sitting in a corner. Now why hadn't a critter gotten into that. This kid decided to leave it alone. I think Buick joined me here after a bit. He may have sampled the gorp.North of Dick's Dome is a section of trail known as the ¢Roller Coaster¢. Buick pointed that out to me. According to the Companion the trail corridor here is very narrow. Therefore the trail has to climb up and down over 10 viewless ridges in 13.5 miles. We hiked together for the last 6.9 miles of our 25.8 mile day to Sam Moore Shelter. We were prepared for an effort but not too concerned. Honestly, it wasn't a problem. Someone had said there were six ridges to cross before the shelter. We hadn't really been counting. We were just talking about stuff. Then towards the end we tried to remember how many we had crossed to see how many there were yet to go. We concluded there was only one to go and that was right. So the trail had gone up and down several times. None of the climbs were particularly steep or long. It just wasn't a big deal. Now, maybe for the out-of-shape short haul hiker this section is a problem but certainly not for the hardened thru-hiker.Local Trail Hype:We decided that the locals on each section of the trail are looking for something that they can boast about. Be it the steepest, the highest, the most this or the most that, everyone wants a claim to fame for their section even if it doesn't amount to much. The last ridge of the day, about a mile and a half before the shelter was called Buzzard Hill and the Handbook indicated a summit 150 feet to the left. It was close to sunset but we just had to check out the only possible view in quite a while. There was this really cool big old tree on top of the summit cliffs. We had to climb it and get some pictures. We hung out here for a good 10 or 15 minutes taking in the setting sun. It was a well deserved break from a nice late day haul. The day ended at Sam Moore Shelter after 25.8 miles.A shot of sunset from the trail is great but it speaks of a need to get moving since the shelter is still a mile and a half down the trail. Oops.