Date: 2004-05-11
From: Va. 623

To: Va. 615,Laurel Creek
Miles today: 8.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Today is Tuesday May 11th. We left home yesterday May 10th, at 1:15 in the afternoon We tried to rent a regular car, but ended up with a new Dodge Caravan, with 109 miles . Thought we would take the seats out of it, but the seats just fold down into the floor. We took the mattress out of our van and put it into the new Caravan. We drove it to Charleston, West Virginia. It took us about 8 hours to get there. It was too warm to sleep in the car, so we stayed at Motel 6. Got up this morning, left at 7:30 am, came to a rest area. Had breakfast at a picnic table. Drove onto Beckley and found our Enterprise car rental place. They said we could have another 2005 Dodge Caravan for are shuttling, but we decided to take a Chevy Impala instead. We drove out to the trail at Va 615 and drop the car off, and then came around to the very familiar Virginia 623, Burkes Garden road. We drove up up up there and finally got ready for our hike . There was a lady parked up there, who was really there to help her husband slackpack the trail, but they had also adopted a bunch of other hikers, they were giving rides to hikers every day. Her husband's trail name is Crispy Critter, her nick name is Trail Widow, but on the trail she's Trail Critter. They hiked about twice as fast as we do, so we may not see them again. Got on the trail at 12:10 a.m with 8.7 miles to hike. Driving From Charleston to Beckley was 50 miles, from Beckley to the trailhead was 50 miles. So that makes it was about 613 miles to the trailhead from Belleville. Every year the trail gets 50 miles further away. So far the hike is sunny and pretty warm, in the 70s somewhere. The trail has been level going across the Ridge Top with some rocky spots. But all in all, pretty nice and then we started on the downhill. Finally you get down to where it's just walking through the woods. Then we saw some Flaming Azaleas blooming. And then you started hitting some of the Rhododendron tunnels. Finally at 2:33 p.m. we came to the Jenkins shelter for a late lunch and foot break. We took a 30-minute break. It's been trying to rain on us but hasn't quite got us wet yet. Let me clarify something, we actually had our peanut butter sandwiches at the car. Before we get on the trail, isn't that an interesting fact. So from the shelter you go down to a creek with a wooden bridge on it. And then you go up, and you go up and up and up and you hear thunder over on the next Mountain. You go over the top the next mountain, and then you go down, very standard. For me the biggest problem today has been the muck on the trail. But we've been able to get around it, no trouble. So by this time we've crossed the main Creek 6 times and several side Creeks as well.  We hear the thunder occasionally, but no rain yet today. But Terry is still wet because it's a hot and humid day. When we finally came to the creek, there were many Rhododendron tunnels we passed through, very beautiful. So altogether we did 12 main creek crossings and 7 side creek crossings, with a very beautiful bridge at the last Crossing of Laurel Creek. So we got back to the car at 5:40PM which was a 5.5 hour hike To do 8.7 miles. We go back to pick up the other car and then we have our whole evening ahead of us. One more addition to our hike, we only passed one person Between va623 and va615. It was a guy going Southbound, just before we got to Jenkins shelter. All we did is ask him how far the shelter was.