Date: 2016-05-20
From: Rice Field Shelter

To: Captains
Miles today: 13.8

The beautiful sunset from the night before gave way to fog at night. I got up for a midnight bathroom trip and the trees around the shelter were masked in fog, dark sentinels in a sea of white mist. In the morning the fog has lifted but it was cold and windy. No one wanted to get up and get out of their warm sleeping bags. Black Moon finally started the process and got up and started gathering his gear. One by one we each started getting up and leaving our warm sleeping bags. I finally left the shelter at 8:30 and started down the trail. We were up on a high ridge that was the border of Virginia and West Virginia and we'd be following the ridge most of the day. The trail was fairly level with continuous small ups and downs, at least until mid-day when there were a couple of higher mountains to climb. With the terrain fairly friendly I settled in listening to an audiobook on my iPhone as I walked, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. If you hadn't seen The Last Lecture on YouTube, or read his book I highly recommend it. It's very powerful to see a man diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer deliver a real last lecture; which he used "Achieving your Childhood Dreams" as the topic. My own father died from pancreatic cancer at the young age of 60, and so it is especially meaningful to me. It's also meaningful in that walking the AT was one of my childhood dreams, one I am trying to fulfill.After a short but steep 400 foot climb at the end of the ridge, the trail switchbacked down 1300 feet into a river valley. I stopped at the Pine Swamp Shelter briefly to say hello and check the shelter log. Down Under and Homer hadn't signed in so I wasn't sure where they were. The shelter was already packed as all the hikers had heard that a heavy rainstorm was headed this way and they were trying to secure a dry spot for the night. I had planned on getting a couple of more miles in today so wasn't looking to camp at the shelter, I was moving on to The Captains. I followed the trail for another 1.2 miles to get to The Captains. The AT Guide said you had to cross the creek by Zipline to get to Captains and I could see why. The trail was on one side of Stony Creek and the Captains was on the other. To reach his property he had rigged up a cable and pulley system so that you sat on a wooden seat, hooked your pack to a carabiner and pulled on a cable to pull yourself across the creek. This was so cool and epitomized the AT. Captain was just a kind soul that allowed hikers to camp on his property and had a few picnic tables set up, trash cans, a fire pit, a refrigerator with cold pop, wifi, and a charging station for electronics. If it was going to rain like it was tonight, he allowed you to sleep on his back porch. There are probably 20 hikers here tonight, and it is just a wonderful place to spend the night.When I got here Pocahontas and Slinger were already here, as were several other hikers I hadn't met yet - Fish, Pluto, Bees Knees, and 4 hikers who were doing a south bound section. Additional hikers kept showing up as the evening progressed. Captain's gave us a wonderful place to spend the night with a number of conveniences that aren't available in a shelter on the trail.