Date: 2009-05-12
From: Niday Shelter, VA

To: Pickle Branch Shelter, VA
Miles today: 10.1
Weather: clear sky

Cell noneOG notesWe started hiking today at 8:15am, which is about average. We had a shorter day planned and would not have been dissappointed if we had slept later. Well we woke up early anyway.There was Trail Magic at the road a mile from the shelter yesterday. It was advertised up and down the trail so a lot of hikers took advantage of it. Most of those hikers camped near the trail magic and they were still there when we went by. They all told us it was great and we should have been there. We were very pleased with our decision to stay at the shelter and pass on the magic.Soon after leaving the road area we had a huge climb up the next mountain. This one ended up to be very managable because the switchbacks were gradual. I don't know the name of this mountain; the books and maps don't mention it. The significance of this mountain is that Audie Murphyy died there when a plane he was in crashed into the side of it back in 1971. Some of you may be saying, "Who is Audie Murphy?" He was the most decorated American Soldier in World War II. He also was in numerous movies after the war and was very famous. There is a stone monument near the spot where the crash happened that was erected by the VFW.We continued on after seeing the monument and soon started along downhill hike. When we reached the bottom we crossed a stream where we met up with a group of hikers we know. As we were resting there one of the guys went over to the stream to get water and discovered Cokes and bottled water. Ca-ching! We scored some trail magic! What a nice surprise and a pick me up for the remaining hike.We only had one trail mile from the stream to the shelter junction. We had another 1/3 mile on a side trail. We arrived at the shelter around 2 pm again today. The sun was shining and the air was dry. We immediatly put up a clothesline and started drying our gear and clothes. After all the days of rain we've had everything felt wet whether it was or not. Now everything feels dry. We also gathered wood for a fire this evening and we'll light it around dark. Fires are known as Cowboy TV because it mesmerizes you to watch it flicker. Incidentlly, this has nothing to do with today, but sleeping under the stars (no tent, just your sleeping bag) is known as Cowboy Camping.We cooked two dinners tonight, we had Easy Mac when we arrived and then dinner about 5 pm. We need so much fuel to keep hiking and we now have to eat a lot. Dinner is done and everything is clean. The only thing we have left to do is hang our bear bag and we'll be done for the night.Now it's time to relax and rest for tomorrow's hike. C6 notesBeautiful day today - sunny, nice comfortable breeze, and cool until the afternoon. The hike was easy compared to the last two days. Because of the spacing of the shelters ahead of us, we decided to only go to the next shelter (10 miles). The next two days will be bigger miles.The sun is wonderful. We've had mostly rain for the past two weeks, so any sun is very welcome! It's nice to be able to dry things out and relax in the nice warm sun. My left big toe hurts a lot still. What has happened is that the long downhill in the rain two days ago started irritating my toe by pushing on the toenail. That irritation caused my toe to swell up...causing more irritation. When two of my other toes were doing this, they hurt for 2-3 days, and then stopped hurting. Some time later the toenail fell off of each of those toes. I expect that to happen with this big toe. I hope the pain subsides soon so the toe won't hurt so much when I hike. Unfortunately, it's not progressing as fast, nor the same way, as the other two toes did, so I think it will hurt for a longer period of time.Old Goat & Check Six