Date: 2011-06-07
From: VA 43/ Buchanan 

To: Bryant Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 10.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 78 - I slept well but my clothes and gear were pretty damp when I woke up being that close to the river. I was up at 7:00am, already an hour behind my tentative mental schedule and I packed up and went back to Burger King for breakfast. I filled my pack bladder and a 700ml bottle with water and my other 700ml bottle with Gatorade. It promised to be another hot day and I knew I was 5.4 miles from the next water source, so I was fully stocked. I was on the side of VA43 at 8:15am attempting to get a ride back up to the trail head. One of my decision points on coming to Buchanan was that I thought it would be easy to hitch back, with so much traffic going to the Blue Ridge Parkway. What I did not realize is that greater than 50 percent of the BRP traffic appears to be motorcycles and the remaining vehicles are from out of state and they don't normally pick up hitch hikers. So, I stood there and stood there. The haze had finally burnt off and I put on sunscreen and stood some more. Finally, at 9:40am I got a ride from a local gentleman headed over to Bedford. This put me on the trail at 10:00am which was way later than I wanted as I had basically lost the coolest 3 hours of the day. Oh well, won't make that mistake in the future, but again, it was water driven. The morning was tough, my pack was heavy with all the water but I was consuming it at a disciplined rate. I would alternate between taking 2-3 gulps of Gatorade or water every 15 minutes, in attempt to keep hydrated. I did not have the best of energy level but I kept plodding along. I saw the largest black snake today that I have ever seen, it must have been 5-6 feet long. It was on the side of the trail, very docile but I did not poke it either. I always had heard if you see a black snake around that they would keep the copperheads away but I am not sure if that is true or not. I have not seen any copperheads yet, but I know that this terrain is suitable for them. Toward mid-day I arrived at Jennings Creek at VA 614. The trout stocked creek had a swimming hole so I decided why not. So, I stripped down to my shorts and cooled off for awhile and watched the rainbow trout and smallmouth bass swimming about while I had a bite to eat. My goal for the day was to get to Cornelius Creek shelter which was 15.3 miles from my starting point this morning. On up in the afternoon, I realized I did not have the energy to go that far so I settled on Bryant Ridge shelter that was a total of 10.3 miles. It was just too blooming hot to push on. I arrived at Bryant Ridge at 4:50pm, got water, rinsed off in the small stream and ate dinner. I was the only one there, in fact, I had not seen any other hikers at all today. All the northbound traffic is ahead of me and I have not met up with the southbound group yet. Finally, Pink Floyd, from Iowa, showed up later, he had hiked 20 some miles already that day and was going on to the next campsite. This shelter is probably the nicest and largest shelter I have seen thus far, it was huge and sleeps 20 people. There was no real suitable tent site around, so I actually pitched my tent inside the shelter, wanting to have the bug screen between me and nature. I was so tired, I was in my tent at 7:00pm and actually fell asleep soon afterwards. My plan was to get up early on Wednesday and hike as much as I could in the cool part of the day. My total mileage is now at 751.8.