Date: 2004-04-22
From: Lamberts Meadow Campsite, VA

To: Day 44: US 220 near Daleville, VA
Miles today: 9.1
Weather: scattered clouds

The last portion of this through hike segment, AT Day 44, began as usual at 5:00 a.m. and allowed me to hit the trail by 7:00 a.m. My goal was to hustle along so I could complete the 9.8 miles by 11:00 a.m. at which time I could go with my wife to a well-deserved restaurant lunch feast. Not so, since I quickly saw that even these modest plans were going to have to be trimmed back because the trail turned out to be surprisingly difficult due to numerous short, but challenging ascents and descents on the rocky ridge line.About half way through this hike I met up with Mello who was rapidly moving along in the opposite direction carrying nothing but a little water and some snacks. When questioned about how he had managed this interesting disruption in the laws of geographic geometry; he told me that he met up with his parents at the 4 Pines Hostel and that they had driven him north so he could quickly slackpack through this section and thus still allow them time to meet with him while he still stayed on schedule with the rest of us. Mello suggested that I should try slackpacking once in a while, but I told him no, that I was a purist and would carry my full pack all the way to Maine.Mello also mentioned that he saw that my wife, Hot Chocolate had left me a note ¢down at the highway.¢ I joked that she was probably telling me that she had gotten tired waiting for me and had moved on, but he made it clear that he had not read the note so once again I had a mystery to keep my mind occupied as I hiked along. The latter was tempered by the lovely pastoral views from the ridgeline, especially from Hay Rock, of the surrounding Virginia countryside (including Carver Cover Reservoir and even the city of Roanoke) so I was shocked out of my reverie by the unexpected, and obviously very pleasing meeting up with my wife hiking toward me in the opposite direction. After our usual ¢greetings,¢ she told me that our truck was parked at US 220 so today¢s hike would be shortened to 9.1 miles ¢ and for once I did not complain about this reduction in my planned mileage goals.Nearing the end of this short hike together, my wife spotted a rather large black snake lying on the AT pathway directly in front of me. Naturally, my first reaction was to grab my camera for a couple of up-close-and-personal shots, while Hot Chocolate exclaimed that we had better give the snake a large berth before it woke up.Shortly after we ¢escaped this danger,¢ we came upon a trail register in which my wife had left a message. She wouldn¢t let me read it until I had written my own. I thought this was curious, even for my wife, but I obliged and when I eventually did read the note I knew why she had exercised this caution. In her note she explained that it was important for her to get me off the trail to eat some lunch so I would be calm when she explained the latest damage to our recreational trailer¢¦ As usual I will leave the details of the latter to my wife¢s trail journal, but suffice it to say that in parking the trailer at our new campsite she hit a large rock and busted the ¢black water¢ tank ¢ luckily the tank was completely empty and ¢clean,¢ so the mess was minimal, even though we no have the use of our in trailer bathroom facilities. Alas, one more thing to fix when we take the trailer to the Sunline factory in Denver, PA. Life on the trail with Hot Chocolate is always an interesting and exciting experience.