Date: 2014-05-01
From: Chestnut Knob Shelter

To: Fort Bastian - Laurel Creek
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: light rain

Up at 6 and there is fog everywhere. My tent fly is soaking and I give it a good shake to get off as much moisture as possible to avoid any added weight. I love walking in the early morning as the woods awaken. Owls hoot good night as the other birds chirp good morning. Met up with a young guy Peaches who wa out of water and the water source marked on the book was a little shady. I gave him some of mine and started to head out when I spotted another water source that was quite good and let him know. Spent the rest of the day leap frogging him when he took breaks and then he would pass me later on as he is a much faster hiker. Was passed by Head Banger and Jolly (Rancher) early on also. Lots of small ups and downs, just enough to get your heart and lungs pumping with very little rest (smooth flat spots) to ret in between. Made Jenkins Shelter by 12 averaging 2 mph. There were few views at first but as the fog lifted and the clouds gave away to blue skies I could see Burkes Garden valley again. I plan to stay at Fort Bastian, a place run by TruBrit. The book says there is laundry and breakfast and if I'm lucky a shower too. Finally was able to connect with him and he had Hump who thru hiked last year meet me at Laural Creek to pick me up and bring me back to TruBrits place. We took a quick run into Bland to pick up some work supplies and I was able to snag a soda and chips at the Dollar General and then a foot long at Subway. What I thought would be a hostel turned out to be a camping spot under some pine trees. The pine trees are being cut and used to build hiker hostel buildings for the future. There was also no laundry (AWOL book was wrong) and the only washing my body would see would be down at the creek. There was breakfast in the morning which would consist of Pancakes, Bacon and Eggs, all for the previously unnoted amount of $7 which wasn't going to break me but would have been nice to know up front. There are 4 others who have been here for a while recovering from injuries or just hanging out: Key Lime, Penguin Man, Money Maker and Hey Everybody. Decided I at least needed a sponge bath and it wouldn't hurt to get a couple of layers of dirt and stink out of some of my clothes also, so it was off to the creek for a clean up. Boy was that water ever cold!!! I washed my hair first and felt like my head turned into an ice cube. I got one of those ice cream headaches time 100 and lasted a good minute. Then I polluted the pond with my clothes using some of the shampoo left over because it wasn't like I was going to do this anytim soon again. AYCE and Mack showed up along with Valley Girl and her service dog Jake a large chocolate lab, as well as Cromwell, Cowboy and Ganderwall (sp?). Oh the other thing about this place that was advertised was they had power to charge your phone batteries with. The only problem the power came from a generator that wasn't turned on until later in the evening. Fortunately I was able to have it plugged in long enough to get a full charge. I had tuna and cheese on a bagel that proved to be quite messy. I will stick to making sandwiches out of PBJ and pepperoni and cheese. The rest of the crew ordered from the local pizza place who finally came at 915. By that time I was ready to hit the sack because I wanted to be ready to get back on the trail. It will be interesting to see how breakfast turns out tomorrow as there will be 12 hungery mouths to feed.