Date: 2004-06-11
From: US Hwy 501 (Glasgow, VA)

To: Brown Mt Creek Shelter
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Glasgow is a good example of the uniqueness of small town America. The town is small with a handful of homes and stores. The first things you notice are...the dinosaurs! Eight or ten life sized replicas of different dinosaurs are scattered throughout town. A T-Rex, a stegosauraus, others. On a rooftop, in front of the motel and gas station. The gentleman who gave us a ride back to the trail cleared up the mystery. The mayor and town council wanted to do something to attract visitors to town so they voted to buy the dinosaur statues. Now, he says, a few people stop, take pictures and drive on. Not quite the tourist boom that was hoped for. Even more strange than the sight of dinosaurs in a small town is that of a life sized cowboy on a horse in front of the grocery store that has roped one of the critters.I met Fly when I went in for breakfast. She's 61, a retired camp counselor and social worker from NC who has hiked the trail in 5 sections and is back to attempt a thruhike. She had surgery on her knees back in Dec but is hiking strongly now. We split the cost of a lift back to the trail. I carried an extra bacon biscuit along.Gadget came in as we were waiting. He spent the night at the last shelter and is in town for a mail pickup at the PO. I had to break the bad news that the PO was closed due to Reagan's funeral. He'll be staying a day here among the dinosaurs.Back to the trail by 9:00am for a short hike to the John's Hollow shelter. There was a group of a dozen young ladies out for a 2-week hike. It was fun listening to them get ready to leave. "Ready in the front?! Ready in the front! Ready in the back?! Ready in the back! Ready in the middle?!..." They hiked off whooping on the second day of their trip. I'd like to hear them on, say, the tenth day.It was a long climb up Big Rocky Row. I stopped for my biscuit and a long break about half way up. Fly and I were looking forward to the trail magic down at Little Irish Creek. A section hiker told us yesterday that someone had set up a huge tent and was cooking for thruhikers - would be there for three weeks. Then we met Moosekiller, southbound on a section hike. He informed us that the trail magic show left yesterday.Moosekiller got his trailname from being charged twice by a bull moose in rut in Maine. He stopped the first one with pepper spray. With no spray left for the second one, he jumped behind a tree and found himself in a faceoff with the moose on the other side of the tree towering above him. Finally the female moose called from down in the woods and the bull left. Moosekiller felt the pain of being rejected for a prettier face. He has had several other adventures as he's worked on completing the trail over the past several years. Last year he had a heart attack at one of the shelters. But he's plugging away - said he came out this year just to see what would happen next.With no trail magic to look forward to, I stopped at a spring to eat and take some medicine for this cold that won't let go. Then on to Pedlar Dam, through the thunderstorm and rain to the Brown Mt Shelter at 8:30pm. The umbrella that I bought in Daleville worked great on its first test.