Date: 2005-06-01
To: Jennings Creek
Miles today: 14.0

Deb's perspective:Today I woke up and it wasn't going to be a hiking day for me. Everyone was ready to do more miles today while they could take advantage of slackpacking. Domino took a look at where this section was going, and it turned out that the trail crossed the Blueridge Parkway several times at overlooks. So we set out, dropping Scholar's car off at the endpoint, Jennings Creek, to aid in the shuttling at the end. It was a somewhat grey day, and a little cool up in the mountains, but overall it was pretty nice. I watched Domino disappear into the trees at one overlook and then pop out at on down the road. A bunch of hikers in our group decided to walk along the road because it was for more scenic than the trail itself. We all stopped at an overlook and had a nice lunch together, and then off again. A the next crossing, the trail went off the parkway for the remainder of the section. It happened to be just outside Buchanan, the closest town. Domino decided that after the hike we could go into town to the grocery store to get chili ingredients and that would be dinner tonight. Excellent idea! At this point, Bassline needed to go into Buchanan to pick up a maildrop, so while everyone else pressed on, Bassline and I took a side trip to Buchanan, where his maildrop had not yet arrived. We ducked into a cool little bookstore that was really the ground floor of a house. Bassline picked up some reading material, and then we went in search of the grocery store. Is that it, or is that just a quickie mart?? Nope, that's the grocery store. We went in to check it out and grab some goodies. Hm, not much of a selection, we'll see if Domino can find all of his chili ingredients that he needs. We head back to the trail and down a very twisty downhill dirt road to Jennings Creek. Spike and Hopper were there, but no one from our group had arrived yet. I went down to the creek, my knees feeling every bit of the short downhill slope. I hear something that sounds like a call of the wild, and then see a familiar pair of brightly colored shorts emerging from the trees up on the road above the creek. It's Domino! In he came and we were soon back down by the creek where he started fishing. We found a small dead snake and saw another live one on a rock across the creek. Before long, everyone was there and Sunshine and Stilts decided to take a swim. I managed to let Domino talk me into dipping my knees in to help ease the pain, so I did. It really did feel pretty good. After a while we decided to head back to Buchanan and get to the grocery store before it got too late. Domino got all the ingredients he needed, but what to cook a big batch of chili in at a campsite. Foil roasting pans of course! So we were off back to the campground with Anchor, Sunshine and Stilts. We got back, and almost immediately it started raining. Domino suggested that I take a nap while he figured out how to get the chili cooking, so I thought that was a great idea considering I didn't really have much in the way of rain gear. I settled in listening to the raindrops on the tent and the rustling around of people outside trying to build a fire.Dinner was ready! and I was FREEZING my butt off. Wet, cold, and weary, I dragged myself up to the fire where everyone was huddled around the cooking chicken and eating. What a feast we had this night in the rain. It was nice to have a full belly to help fight off the cold. We all went to sleep smelling like cooking meat.