Date: 2016-06-21
To: A short day, a fawn and a hot lunch
Miles today: 0.0

Vandeventer Shelter to Abingdon Gap ShelterAfter four days with mileage in the mid-teens, we have only 8.3 miles of hiking planned for today on the spread sheet we made for this section before leaving home. We are moving at a good pace on the trail this morning when X suggests continuing on into Damascus today. It¢s another 10 miles, ¢all downhill,¢ past our original destination for tonight. Suuz, not wanting to ruin her feet hiking all afternoon in predicted thunderstorms, tells X to put a cold cloth on her head and forget about Damascus today. We stick with the original plan.We have not been hiking long when we hear a fairly large animal moving through the woods near the trail ahead. Bear? Deer? Not wanting to startle local wildlife, especially a bear, we walk slowly forward. Rounding a bend, we are stopped in our tracks at the sight of a young fawn hugging the ground at the edge of the trail. It still has milk on its nose, and we suspect we interrupted its breakfast. After a few quick pictures we move on quietly. We¢re hopeful the doe came back shortly, as hikers who passed this spot soon after us didn¢t see the fawn.We continue on fairly level ground for most of the morning, passing a long wall of piled stones cleared from the land by earlier residents. The trail is so flat and tame, Suuz takes her eyes off the path for a closer look at the forest. The encounter with the fawn has her wondering if we haven¢t seen any bears this trip because we¢re just not looking for them. Lost in thought, she suddenly finds herself airborne as she trips over a small root in the trail. Trying to let her pack take the weight of the fall, she ends up sprawled on her right shoulder in soft leaf litter, with her head stopped just short of a log. Nothing hurts, so she sheepishly unbuckles the pack and lets X help her to her feet. We arrive at Abingdon Gap Shelter by midday. X has the great idea to heat water for a hot lunch. Then we won¢t have to worry about cooking in the rain forecast for later in the day. We enjoy a leisurely lunch at the picnic table in front of the shelter.Because of the storms expected tonight, we decide to sleep in the shelter. While X is setting up our sleeping gear on the platform, Suuz collects water. Serenity, who arrived before us, reports the shelter¢s water source is a long, steep hike down to a piped spring (and back up). With all our water containers and Sawyer filter stowed in her empty pack, Suuz treks down to the spring. Serenity is seated next to the pipe, collecting more water. She offers to fill our 2-liter Sawyer bags while Suuz filters several liters on the spot. The clean water plus more full Sawyer bags to be filtered for tomorrow make for a heavy pack on the uphill trip.Hardback, Zeroni and Lady stop briefly during the afternoon before heading on, trying to make it to Damascus before bad weather sets in. Later in the day, Puck arrives, having taken a detour off the trail for lunch with friends in town. He cooks dinner with pemican he made for the hike and some of the variety of herbs in his pack. He also throws in a handful of stinging nettles picked near the camp site ¢for roughage.¢ We meet Chuckles, a section hiker from Alaska, who is close to finishing all the miles on the AT. She has just seen a bear near the shelter, another sighting we¢ve missed. A father and daughter, who are hiking a section together as her high school graduation present, set up their tent near the shelter, announcing they¢ve earned the trail names, Dirt Dad and Goat Girl. After dark, Castaway, who¢s hiked out from from Damascus joins those just settling down to sleep on the shelter platform. He¢s killing time before meeting his brother to start a section hike tomorrow and thinks staying in town another night is just too expensive. The predicted thunderstorms move in during the night, and X is awakened by water leaking from a seam line in the roof and falling near her head. We¢re not naming names, but, according to Serenity¢s report later, there is loud snoring from three sleepers in the shelter tonight. The only thing Suuz hears is someone talking during the night. In the morning she learns it was Quadzilla arriving at the shelter, where he decided to tent tonight after spending three days with the legendary Bob Peoples at Kincora Hiking Hostel.We¢ve survive another day and night on the AT, with an ever growing cast of characters--old friends and new--and more tales to tell. Who could ask for more?Dr. Suuz and X