Date: 2013-05-09
From: Chestnut Knob Shelter

To: Fort Bastion, Laurel Creek
Miles today: 14.8

Today was like two different days. The first part of today I was distracted and low on energy. It took me 7 hours to hike 10 miles. The last part of the day I felt great and hiked 4.8 miles in 2 hours. The first half of the day was scenic. I left Chestnut Knob and hiked the majority of the day along a ridge. To the west I had great views of farms below. To the east there were views of mountains. I stopped to watch a hawk floating on the air currents. I stopped multiple times to look at the coral fossils in the limestone. The trail was still slippery after 4 days of rain. About 3 miles into the hike the trail crossed over rocks and I slipped on a wet rock and fell hard on my right elbow and hip. No broken bones, but I have some pretty good abrasions and bruises. I will definitely need some vitamin-I (Ibuprofen) tonight. I was missing Anita really bad today. I sat on a log in the middle of the woods and listened to one of our favorite songs by Keb Mo. For the first 7 hours of hiking I only saw two other hikers - Smokes and Smiley Virgin. They are two guys from southern Germany. Word travels fast on the trail and I had hear about Smiley Virgin a week before I met him. And how did he get his name you might wonder? When he first started hiking the AT he had not hiked a lot before so some of the hikers started calling him hiker virgin. His English wasn't very good and he didn't know what virgin meant, but everyone was laughing so he went along with it. He smiles all the time so eventually it morphed into Smiley Virgin. I'm not sure why the first part of the day was so hard but I know I made several mistakes. First, I should have stopped sooner and taken my shoes off and let my feet and soaks dry out. By the time I got to the shelter (10 miles) my feet were killing me. I think it was a combination of wet feet and walking on rocks. My second mistake was waiting until the shelter to eat lunch. I had calculated that with my normal hiking speed I should reach the shelter by 1:00. Anita calls me a stubborn cuss and today my stubbornness overruled my better judgement. I refused to eat lunch until I reached the shelter and I didn't reach the shelter until 3:30. Even though I had snacks, I think a major part of my struggle was a calorie deficit. No one else was at the shelter and there were warnings posted about recent activity by an aggressive bear. I took my shoes and socks off, ate lunch, and took a 20 minute nap with my feet elevated on my pack. I woke up when Dan-O and Noodles arrived. I felt a lot better after my rest and decided to go another 4.8 miles to a campsite. I was feeling good and the trail was in better condition than earlier. At about mile 4 I came across Moses who said he was going into Fort Bastion run by TruBrit. I decided to do the same. On the trail I came across another large king snake (see pic section). At the road where I was to meet TruBrit I ran into Deanna and David who were providing trail magic. They have never hiked but their daughter's fianc© thru hiked in 2010. In 2011 he was diagnosed with cancer and died. His trail name was J-Bird and they had T-shirts with his name printed on them. They decided to provide trail magic in his honor. This was their last day and they were trying to get rid of as much as they could. I ate 6 hot dogs, fresh fruit, cauliflower, broccoli, Oreos, potato chips, 2 Gatorades, and an orange juice. THANK YOU Deanna and David!!!They are very sweet people. TruBrit picked us up and gave us a ride to Fort Bastion. He is planning to build a major outdoor center. Currently he has a kitchen and a community area set up under two tents. There are about 15 of us here with our tents scattered throughout the woods. We have a major campfire and had fun making s'mores. There is a whippoorwill singing in the woods . . .