Date: 2013-10-02
From: Ridge Camping before Pickle Branch Shelter

To: Niday Shelter, Va
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: broken clouds

So thinking the government shut down won't affect us was incorrect. Can you believe we were stopped today and told that they are pulling thru hikers off the trail? One family was threatened so much they got off and rented a place to wait it out. They were told that social services would be called because their young kids were not in school. The parents are home schooling the kids. The girls and I have decided that if we are stopped, we will sneak back on at night. There is no way we are getting off. It is absurd that the government can't pay rangers to be in the parks but will pay for them to sit at trail heads to pull us off. I don't see how they can enforce this. It goes against the whole nature of the trail. I doubt Grandma Gatewood needed anyone's approval. We will let you know if we get caught. Happy day. We enjoyed it so much we really had a low mileage day. We met a nice couple on a gravel road. The man was a Vietnam vet so of course I told him about my vet and how he, Terry Scott, inspired me to hike. While we were talking Bootsy, a hiker we first met in Connecticut, came walking up. This morning I said to the girls, "I wish someone would walk up and yell, 'Florida Flip Floppers' like the NOBO days". The girls sighed and heartily agreed. So today we hear our name called and there stands Bootsy! He is a part of a fun group called Funky Town. This group of 8 to 10? hiked the AT together. Bootsy had a section he skipped he came back to finish. Just like Ledges who we saw again last week. I can't tell you how cool it is to see a familiar thru hiker face. Later we met another guy who is finishing up he AT from a thru hike last year. His name is Coyote. We probably talked to each of these hikers for close to an hour. They had a lot of good advice about where we are headed. Bootsy said some of his favorite parts of the AT are ahead of us. They got us fired up since we've been feeling like we are past our better days. We discussed our desire to push the miles and finish by early November being at odds with our usual trail manner of stopping when we want, sleeping when we need it and mostly playing whenever the desire hits us. Bear Bell has been telling us to slow down and enjoy ourselves. Bootsy agreed that its more about the journey and suggested we stay in the pattern that we've found such joy in. I guess this means cold hiking over thanksgiving and if not finished by then a cold December winter break hike. All this just to be considered thru hikers and for the girls to be the first Chinese born girls to do this.It was very hot today with the complication of scarce water supply. The water we find is usually by a road or field which I don't trust or a muddy trickle which the girls despise. Water you can chew! I tell them to pretend it is chocolate milk.We saw deer, wild turkeys and snakes today. The snakes have been mostly black racer snakes sunning themselves. Coyote caught a huge rainbow trout with just a hook and line. When he filleted it he found a mouse in its stomach! Bootsy saw cubs in a tree today but they were gone when we got there. We are sleeping in Niday shelter. We met two very nice men who have been section hiking for years. Their feet were a blistered mess. That's the part we dread about taking a break. We will loose our hikers legs and tough feet. They were today's trail angels as they gave us water. We left some trail magic on a bridge. Our bags are so heavy we lightened them a bit for our fellow hikers. Going to sleep at 8 pm which we consider hiker midnight. Hope the mice are warm and don't try to snuggle with us. The girls have generously given me the wall. This is my standard sleeping spot in a shelter ever since they found out that mice run he walls. Zzzzzz