Date: 2014-05-03
From: Crabtree Campground

To: Crabtree Campground
Miles today: 5.8

I thought the wood was just damp. But when I walk around and look at the other towering infernos that the other campers are enjoying, it makes me wonder what I am missing when I make a fire. Mine looks like a 6 year old playing with a Bic. I just don't get it. A bitter sweet day. Evergreen is leaving me today. She now goes back to just Kaytlin and live her little 10 year old girl stressful life of school, softball, and mommy. She is wiped and lays down in the back seat exhausted even though she just got up a couple hours ago. I think it was the perfect time to head back home. She did 76.6 miles! 2 zeros, a nero, some road walking, off trail excursions, a hitchhike, trail magic and a hostel with 6 other stinky guys. I hope this strengthens her confidence, and her ability to conquer big things. I hope she embraces the outdoors and the simple life of shelter, water, and food. I think she will look back at the last 10 days as a great experience. They dropped me back off at the place where I left off yesterday, VA 876. The sweet of it is that im slack packing The Priest and the additional 5.8 back to the campground. I realize very quickly how much I miss Evergreen. What a great hiking partner to have. She did so well even though there were a few bumps along the way. But I'm back by myself with everyone I know way ahead of me. The hike was great and the view from The Priest was priceless. If u can, always go NOBO when day hiking The Priest. It's 4 miles is straight uphill if you go south! I finally saw a snake for the first time on the entire trail. A greenish/gold type snake only a foot long maybe. For some reason I knew I would see another one as these things seem to come in 2's and sure enough within a half a mile I almost step on a big black/very blue eyes snake. Sunbathing like no-ones business. Usually they feel the vibrating feet coming along and hide, but the rain of the last few days and now the warm sunshine has them not budging. Now every stick I saw in my perifial vision had my brain jumping the rest of the day. Yuk. Didn't like that at all.I came off the trail a VA 56 and the parking lot was full. I saw Sunbear eating a Pop-Tart for lunch and mentally recharging himself to tackle the next climb. About 7 trail maintenance volunteers came off the trail from the north the same time I came off from the south. In my experience these awesome people seem to love thru-hikers and want to talk to us about, of course, our thru-hike. 2 of them offered me a ride in their pretty new Subaru and I dodged the 4 mile road hike back to the campground. Love these guys! Always thank them for their work and tell them how much you appreciate their time.Back at the camp before 2 and a whole day just to relax. No signal here and not too much entertainment so I'm forced to do just that, chill. The weather was nice and a nap was as well. I cooked my favorite dehydrated meal Backpackers Pantry Pad Tai. Not too bad. Then of course i tried to do the fire thing. It burned for awhile so I couldn't really complain, but I did compare it to the others. I guess that's a man thing.Song of the day, -Sweet Caroline, -Neal Diamond. My sweet niece Caroline got baptized today.