Date: 2014-05-03
From: mt rogers visitor center

To: davis path campsite
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: clear sky

Today felt like a lazy day but still covered good mileage. We started off with a big breakfast with hotcakes from mcdonalds. I polished off all 1700 calories without hesitation. Then to the grocery store to resupply. I wandered up and down the rows having no idea what i wanted to eat. Im trying to come up with new ideas that are tastey and light, not easy to do. Food in hand and needed ga gas canister for my stove we headed next door to walmart in hopes they would have one. No gas at walmart, the other grocery store with a camping dept, or the tractor supply. Hmmm, does this mean cold oatmeal till i can get gas 60miles from here. Sad face. Back to the room to digest, sulk, pack and catch up my journal. While typing my friend Machine peaks his head in and says 'either of you guys need gas?' I couldnt believe it. The warrior hikers get resupplied by a sponsor but they always send way too much gas so they find homes for it. How opportune this was. He made me take three even though i only had room for two in my pack. Thanked him for asking if we had enough and continued finishing my town chores. Chores never seem to be complete wether its camping chores or town stuff, always something to do. All packed and loaded up by eleven we called for a cab back to the trail. On arriving back to mt rogers welcome center i went back to the shelter to find a hippie that needed gas. Found one that had run out the night before and was gonna get some in Marion. I told him there was none to be had there and handed him a full one. He was just as excited as i was. Well the visitpr center had no coffee so we got to the trail, sore toe and all. I took my first advil of the trip, i think it helped but walking over non flat rocks with a bunged up big toe is tricky. The pace was fairly slow at first with the goal of fifteen miles we should have plenty of sun. Right from the get go there were two climbs that i would rather not have gone up but there really arent always choices. At the top of Glade mt i checked the guide book to see it was going to be a long down hill. A down hill that i think was worse than the uphill. Much more pressure jamming ones toe into the end of the boot. A little break at the Chatfield shelter next to a nice stream was more than welcome. Pushing on from there we came to the Lindamood school, an old one room schoolhouse preserved for the viewing. There was nobody there but the sign in the window said to come on in so i came on in. Well gee, up front was two coolers, one with cold soda one with honeybuns and other snacks. Next to that was 2 bags of apples. Next to that was a big wood box, inside that was anything you could need. Ziplock bags, safety pins, shoe laces, hair net, hand sanitizer, tissues, toilet paper, sunglasses, soap, shampoo, band aids, etc. All put there by a methodist church group. Incredible, it really is. There are some really truly good people out there and i think there might be a lot of em. The schoolhouse itself was adorable with all the desks, a 47 star flag, a list of rules and the punishments for breaking them, a little wood stove in the middle, and of course his and hers outhouses. After hanging out there for a while we would mosey through some meadows and over some hills till we came to the road to Atkins. We werent going there but there was a gas station readily available so it was only polite to go in for a cup of coffee. As we took off our packbacks 2 long distance bikers pulled up. The fella, Warren, was from scotland and the lady, Esther, was from germany. (something just ran past my tent! What the hell was that and i hope it doesnt steal my banana!?) They have been touring on bikes for over three years nonstop! They are doing a trans america route? They started in baltimore and are neding in seatle. Very nice folks, we talked to them for a long time about the fun and trying times of traveling. From there it was only three miles to the planned campsite. Normally we would be there in short order, not today. First we met another thru hiker that musta been a little lonely. We heard his life story and how he has a lump that is sore from one of his shoulder straps and how hes gonna slack pack and hike with his out of shape brother and on and on. 'Well we gotta get to camp', and we made our escape. From there i we walked through more rolling pastures where i spotted a perfect tree up on the horizon of the hill standing all by itself. Had to photograph that. Then i spotted the perfect busted up fence post with a white blaze on it and the trail in the background, had to photograph that. Then finally we had load up on water before the campsite and ended up at a spring fed pool which was awesome. It was about 8' diameter and looked to be about 6' deep with crystal clear water. This was so cool looking, like a senote in mexico. With only one mile to go we rolled into camp set up on crooked spots cuz we were not the first ones there, ate some snacks for dinner and crawled into our homes for the evening. Toe report: its sore but feels better mostly. I think it will get better from overuse. Thats why im going to overuse it tomorrow on another chapter of this epic journey by foot to maine. This is special