Date: 2014-05-21
From: US 220, Daleville, VA

To: Bobblets Gap Shelter
Miles today: 18.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Actual milage is 742.5 miles.Today was a day to remember with many remarkable things.Last night Bear Bag's girl friend drove down to see him from N.H. So Hawk Bill moved out of his room and into mine for the night. Today we all met for breakfast at 6:30 AM. Isn't Black, Hawk Bill, and I said our goodbyes to Curious George who is taking several days off to recover from his injury. We also said goodbye to Bear Bag who is taking a zero day to be with his girlfriend. By 7:20 AM the three of us were on the trail again.The trail was gentle and thick with leaf litter so the hiking was easy despite our heavy packs loaded with food. Most of the day water was available and the temperature mild. A beautiful day to hike. My new socks helped my toes and my chafed back finally healed after four days. It was really painful to wear the pack all day with a chafed back. Overall the trail pains were light and ordinary, Achilles Tendon, ankles, knees, feet and toes all had the normal soreness today.We spent a good time hiking in heavy undergrowth that made the trail seem at times like I was hiking in a narrow corridor between a four foot wall of trees and bushes. Mountain Laurel and other bushes were very thick and a bear could have been standing just a few feet away and I couldn't see it. The thick tree canopy provided shade most of the day. I regularly walked through tunnels of huge lavender blossoms of Rhododendrons and tiny cupped shaped white and pink flowers with delicate red spots of the Mountain Laurel. Mountain Laurel blooms in massive groupings of 30 to 50 flowers on the tip of each branch giving the bush a brilliant dense color. I wish I could put them in my garden. The flowers were so distracting that time just flew by.About 3:00 PM we came across some great trail magic. A man and 3 companions were giving out strawberries and cake and Coke to thru-hikers. He does this one day a year on the anniversary of his completion of the trail in 2009. It took him 10 months.We got to the shelter about 4:30 PM and set up our tents. Not much space here for tents and the guide book said it was a non-tenting shelter. The shelter was full and we didn't want to sleep in the shelter anyway.   I set up my tent on a rocky slope that proved to be very uncomfortable.   I hoped I wouldn't roll to the back corner of my tent, but I did. The shelter is full of thru-hikers I haven't met before. I am again catching up to other hikers because we are doing such high mileage. Shortly after setting up the tent Bear Bag and his girlfriend showed up. The shelter is close to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which I crossed several times today. About noon today we started hiking just 50 yards from the parkway. Bear Bag and his girlfriend drove us to town and treated us to Sonic Hamburgers for dinner. Trail magic again. Then we learned Bear Bag had lost $400, his driver's license, and credit cards at an overview earlier in the day   We decided to drive back to the overview to look for his belongs but didn't think there was any hope of finding them since it had been 2 to 3 hours since he was there. Incredibly, sitting in the middle of the overview driveway in plain sight of every car and hiker, laying on the ground was his belongings. The money, $100 bills, was clearly visible. One the thru-hikers at the shelter said he had walked past the spot just 30 minutes earlier and walked right past the wad of money laying on the ground. Unbelievable.It was supposed to start raining at 4:00 today, but the sky is still clear at 9:00. It is expected to be warm tonight, a low of 61 degrees. Finally NOT COLD.RW Means: Rapturously Warm