Date: 2010-05-31
From: Dismal Creek Falls

To: Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 22.4
Weather:  the friendly older gentleman that engages them easily in conversation about fishing and sports is Randal Lee Smith. Smith is outwardly friendly and avuncular so they invite him to share their dinner with them. With no warning or provocation

"I'm moving on into town¢¦"--EGHM, from Doc's Knob Shelter registerThis was a longer day than I intended as I was originally planning to stay at Woods Hole Hostel, but I eventually pushed on into town.But the outstanding event of the day happened at Wapiti Shelter. The day started sluggish again, extremely high humidity and little sleep -- there were locals partying all night near the falls -- so it took me 2 and a half long and plodding hours to cover the 5 miles to Wapiti Shelter.Later at the shelter Dutch Tape, Cabana Boy, Berkeley Pete and I were talking about the double murder committed by Randal Lee Smith in 1980 at the old Wapiti Shelter. As Dutch Tape and Cabana Boy were leaving a man, his girlfriend, and son walked in and were pointing at the shelter and I heard the woman ask,"Is this where it happened?"I, thinking it was a local who could elaborate on the murders -- and on Lee's eventual second attempted double murders on a couple of fishermen a mile away from the original murders -- asked if they knew the murderer's name and where the original shelter stood. To my and Berkeley Pete's utter disbelief, the woman said this is one of the two guys he shot two years ago.It was! Here was Scott Johnston, who along with his best friend, were shot seriously twice but managed to escape Randal Lee Smith. He told us his story, which is fairly well known, having been featured on the shows "Dateline" and "I Survived" in the last year. We were utterly amazed at his ability to rebound and take control of the awful event that he was a victim of -- this was the first time since his shooting that he had come out to the scene of his original incident and as well as the scene of the first murders.Some backstory: in 1980 a couple of hikers from Maine were set up for the night at the original shelter that Wapiti Shelter replaced. Randal Lee Smith had been on the mountain ridge for a number of weeks living in the forest. That night he shot the man from Maine 3 times in the head, and stabbed the woman 11 times in the back, and after both were dead he buried them about 100 feet from the shelter. He left enough evidence that the police were able to eventually track him down in Myrtle Beach, SC. But due to a plea bargain, Smith served only 15 years concurrently for the murder of both hikers and was released, and he moved back to Pearisburg.Flash forward: in 2008, after Smith's 10 years of parole were up, he disappeared up into the mountains again. Unbeknownst to Scott Johnston and his best friend, who are out trout fishing near the A.T., the friendly older gentleman that engages them easily in conversation about fishing and sports is Randal Lee Smith. Smith is outwardly friendly and avuncular so they invite him to share their dinner with them. With no warning or provocation, Smith takes out a .22 caliber revolver and shoots Johnston in the back of the neck and throat, and shoots Johnston's buddy in the chest and the side of the face.Amazingly, they both reacted instinctively without fear, and quickly ran for Johnston's friend's truck, but his friend was blind from the shot to the side of the face, and when Johnston jumped in the truck, with one hand and finger busy plugging up the bloody gushing hole in the side of his neck, he steered while his friend operated the pedals. They escaped to a nearby house where they alerted police that Smith had probably stolen Johnston's truck to make his getaway. Johnston and his friend were shortly evacuated by helicopter to Roanoke.Meanwhile, the alerted police chased Smith down to Sugar Gap Road (the same road Woods Hole Hostel is located on) and in the process Smith goes of a cliff and smashes the truck, but survives. He eventually is evacuated by helicopter to the same hospital in Roanoke that Johnston and his friend were taken to. Smith died a few days later in the prison hospital from a blood clot suffered in the truck crash. The Pearisburg Mountain Murderer was finally dead.Today, both Johnston and his friend still have bullets lodged in neck and sinus respectively, but are otherwise making remarkable recoveries. Johnston even has a deal in development for a movie version of the events.The two hour long break and anecdotes were enough to energize me up the ridge quickly on my way to Woods Hole Hostel. At the junction to the Ribble Trail I meet Barman and we hike together talking about Cuban politics and history, and about the hiker hostel he runs in the Basque region of Spain. But at the hostel I find that the two "inside rooms," i.e., the rooms inside the main house are already rented for the evening, and I don't wish to pay $10 to sleep on the hostel floor, so I move on after having some of Neville's (the new proprietor/Tillie Woods' granddaughter) homemade black raspberry and vanilla ice creams, and the obligatory caffeine kick from 3 cans of Mountain Dew.I really thought I'd fly down into Pearisburg as most of the 7 miles are downhill, but I hit the proverbial wall at Angel's Rest, the beginning of the steep descent into town, and I plod down for the last hour of the hike, basically walking as if I were punch drunk.But the 10:30pm shower and air conditioning is well worth the walk. With the constant high humidity and afternoon thunderstorms out here one spends days at a time constantly wet. It's easy to dry everything out in the climate controlled conditions in an air conditioned room. It feels "excellent-good" to be inside.