Date: 2018-06-14
From: Sarver Hollow Shelter

To: Craig Creek Road
Miles today: 7.4
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up this morning to a deer grazing behind the shelter, and while I was packing up my gear another deer walked right by slowly. Still no bucks!  I was dreading leaving the shelter this morning as it was 0.4 miles off trail and  straight down the mountain side. Hiking back to the trail would be straight UP that same steep mountain side. There were three other hikers with us last night.  One was a cartographer.  I¢m not sure I¢ve ever met a cartographer before.  Another was an older gentleman who didn¢t have a lot to say, then there was Frog.  We have been playing leapfrog with frog and his tramily the past 3 days.  He is ahead of them now. He¢s a quiet guy who mostly stays off to himself.  He¢s also a smoker so that might be why.  He carries his tobacco and rolls his own cigarettes. I haven¢t seen that in years!  Anyway we learned he has two daughters. I think 6 years and 8 years old. He lights up when he talks about them.  Turns out he¢s retired military.  He was in the first Gulf War and while raiding a bomb house he was severely injured.  His job was to stand guard outside a window and a bomb went off on the second floor.  I can¢t remember all of his injuries but to name a few, vertebral fractures, femur fracture, third degree burns to left arm, and he nearly lost part of his right hand.  No wonder he¢s often lost in thought.  There¢s more than meets the eye with him. So up and out we went. I was in the lead, but we pretty much stayed together.  We found ourselves on a ridge with lots of rocks.  The view was amazing for miles of ridge hiking. The problem is the rocks! They were huge boulders that slanted. Often times they slanted right down the side of the mountain.  One slip down there would be death for sure. Lucky for us, when Hugs and I fell today, our wet boulders were slanted towards more trail.  I¢m soooo tired of falling!  I landed square on my butt so hard it took my breath away.  I took a minute to assess myself before I continued on, but the trail improved from there. Together the three of us found our sign marking the Eastern Continental Divide, and we crossed over.  I¢m officially hiking in the Eastern part of the USA now!  I¢ve been looking forward to this.   I had two awesome animal sightings today. The first one was a box turtle, and she was right on the trail.  She was hustling pretty fast for a turtle too!  Hope she doesn¢t beat me to Katahdin! The second sighting was a black snake climbing a tree.  This snake was at least 5ft long maybe 4inches around.  He¢s my photo of the day.  Shortly after our photo session with the snake we saw a cute little Rat Terrier bouncing up the trail. Close behind was his human. That was Joe.  Joe is the owner of 4 Pines Hostel and our ride to civilization.  This hostel leaves a lot to be desired, but it¢s like a great big trail reunion!  Tahoe Jimmy is here, Robin is here, my favorite trail dog Melvin is here, Giggles is here, Minksy and lots of others.  I¢ve seen Jams electronics, but no Jams yet.  Looking forward to seeing him. We were shuttled to The Home Place for dinner. It¢s an all you can eat served family style restaurant here in Catawba VA.  They are only open Thursdays through Sunday. Look it up, there¢s a little history to the place.  It¢s a beautiful old house, and the food was excellent!  I¢m miserably full.  We¢re planning on playing a little cards tonight. Until Next Time Blue Raccoon (2018)Where¢s your faith?