Date: 2008-10-04
From: Ridge on the way to Dragon's Tooth

To: Trail after John's Spring Shelter
Miles today: 12.2

I enjoyed my little camp spot but left it to move on down the trail. Tonight was to be real town food. That is alwaus a good motivator.But first the hike. I might not have been as far past Pickle Branch shelter as I thought as it took guite a while to get to Dragon's Tooth. The trail got rockier and rockier and rougher and rougher with lots of large rocks to scramble over or scoot down. I thought to myself that if the Dragon's Tooth rock formation was an inscisor then I was scrambling over the molars.I finally got to the top near Drangon's Tooth and was regreting my lack of working camera. So I took the camera out of the case and set it in the sunshine while I ate my mid-morning snack bars. It was a very beautiful day.Then I tried the camera and it did not work again. So I left my pack and the camera baking in the sun and walked down the short walk to the Dragon's Tooth. At least I was going to see it even if I could not take a picture.The Drangon's Tooth is this huge, relatively narrow rock sticking high into the sky. There were some day hikers there. This is a popular hike from the road and it was a Saturday. Already at 10:00 there were several hikers there admiring the rock and the view.After chatting with them for a while I went back to my stuff and tried my camera again and IT WORKED! Yeah!! I took a picture of the view and then went back to the Dragon's Tooth and took a picture of it and the day hikers took a picture of me too. So at least I have some pictures for this day.I started down the trail then and found this side even more challenging than the other. There were some tricky parts getting down the rocks and two places that had fixed bars to use like stairs where the rock was too steep and sheer to maneuver. Interesting. A younger me would have loved it. Even myself as a gimpy old lady found it interesting.On the way down several day hikers were going up and also a thru-hiker from England or Ireland named Teabags. He shard he was one year younger than me and wasn't it nice that at our age we can be proud of our age. Fun but short chat. I was going to take his picture and then the camera wouldn't work again. Oh well.After coming down from Dragon's Tooth there was a road which I crossed and then another hill. I met SOBO thru-hikers Sweet Sweet and Sunny Daze. (I might have that last one wrong but it is the best my memory can do.)On a bit farther I came to a creek and decided it was an excellent place for a break and I really wanted to get at least partly clean as I had been sweating and felt very groaty. Just as I had the water and was about to partially disrobe along came a mature couple hiking the trail. We chatted but I was in such a hurry to get clean I started washing what parts I could reach while talking to them. The probably thought I was going to contaminate the stream with my camp soap but after they left and I finished washing up I emptied my pot way up the hill over a broad area. I did not contamnate the stream. Honest.From there trail went through some meadows with numerous styles to climb over fences. I met SOBO thru-hikers Mr Natural and Minyon.On I went, a few day hikers passing me. At the top of a hill just as I was sitting on a rock for a rest, Bobbie (the woman who picked me up at the airport) came up the hill calling my name. She had hiked in to meet me. She had told me she might do that but I really did not know if she would. Amazing! I was so glad to see her!!! She probably hiked in 4 miles. Wow!!We walked those last miles together chatting along the way. Linda was going to come too but was unable to do so. Wow!When we got to the parking lot Bobbie drow me to the little country store so I could resupply for the next couple days and then we went to The Home Place to eat. This is a very popular place to eat for thru-hikers and all sorts of other people too. We had to wait over an hour to get a table. Then they bring you fried chicken, choice of roast beef or country ham, cole slaw, corn, green beans, red beans, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuts, apple butter, all you can eat for $13.00.AFter you are on the trail for a week or two, you get "hiker hunger." This means you can eat anything not bolted to a table. So you can tell why hikers love this place. The food was quite good and we had peach cobbler with ice cream for desert. Yum.By then it was pitch dark and I had a mile to go to the next shelter. Bobbie took me back to the trailhead and I started up the trail with a headlamp with its battery almost dead. (It takes an odd size battery, 6 volts, and the country store did not have it.)I put the headlamp on low setting to get as much life out of it as possible and started up the trail. I was to discover the next day that I want PAST the shelter but missed the turn off. Eventually the headlamp ran out of battery and there I was on the AT with a rocky part behind me, a rocky part in front of me and no light and the moon wasn't bright either. On one side of the trail the hill sloped steeply down and on the other side of the trail it went steeply up. So, being an old lady who did not want to further damage any more body parts, I stopped. Right there.I spread the tent on the flat part of the trail and cowboy camped on top of it in the middle of the trail. I was safe, my tummy was full and it was an interesting way to end the day, sleeping in the middle of the trail.