Date: 2007-04-02
From: Rte 91

To: Rte 421
Miles today: 6.5

Thursday, March 29, 2007Today¢s hike happens on the Shenandoah Valley Golf Club course. Many many miles, but none of them count.Queen Diva puts on a big celebration of the 101st day after my birthday. Among other things, she treats me to a golf outing at Shenandoah Valley Golf Club.I've brought my clubs to Bears Den especially for this occasion. Also I've brought everything else in the golf section of my sports closet, about 30 balls, old gag stuff from workplace tournaments, etc. My 30-year-old golf glove is calcified. It's not so far gone that I can't wear it, but like my feet, my hands are so much bigger now than when I was in my 30¢s. I can't begin to get my hand into it. At the SVGC Pro Shop, I buy a new golf glove. That should give me an edge! I look through the bag for my favorite club, a trusty 5-wood. It's not there. That was the only club I could ever really hit. I wish I had it now. Amoeba, are you already making up your excuses? What is in the bag is a club I have no recollection of, a real old 2-iron, made with a wooden shaft. No idea where that came from. When we played last August 31 at Virginia National Golf Club in Bluemont on Queen Diva¢s birthday, we lost 4 balls on just the first hole. Either we¢ve improved or SVGC lacks the traps, rough, brush, weeds, marshes and pitfalls of VNGC. Not only do we not lose any balls, we don¢t whiff as much and I don¢t fall out of the cart! Did I say we¢ve improved? As for the competition between me and the Queen, the last 2 holes I am closing in, but she holds onto her lead, winning 72 to 75. I¢m not saying how many holes we played : -))). Just like Queen Diva says ¢you¢ll have to kill me to get one of my recipes", I say "you¢ll have to kill me to get me to tell you the number of holes we played to score 72 and 75"¢¦Lord only knows how badly Queen Diva would have beaten me if she¢d been playing with her own clubs.Looking forward to my revenge match, August 31, hee, hee. Back to the hostel for a special fancy candle-lit rice pudding birthday dessert. I love pudding! I'm not so old I can't manage to blow all the candles out! Queen Diva, THANK YOU for a wonderful birthday celebration, everything perfect except for one thing: you went and put how many holes we played on your blog!Saturday, March 31, 2007Queen Diva puts on a big welcome dinner for Gray Feathers and Memere, shared with Sweet Sixteen, Hannah and me, pasta, salad, her special fresh tomato and garlic sauce and her special alfredo sauce.So Big and Jim go out to dinner but join us for dessert.Hostel is almost full, only one open bed in the hiker room and only one upstairs, cottage and private room are full.Sunday April 1, 20072 woodpeckers climbing the maple tree in the yard at Bears Den. Daffodils are out, grass has greened up.Goodbyes to Hannah, Jim, the Owens Brothers (Mason, Brian and Paul), the Southern NJ and Delaware trail clubs (including Joel, who I met in the Whites in 2004). Goodbye friend and angelest of angels, Queen Diva. You bring light and love to many people. Happy Easter with your family. Have fun the week after Easter when you travel south to see friends and do your special brand of trail magic.Memere and Gray Feathers and I start out for Ceres, seeing Frank and Mickey walking along Rte 601, dropping off So Big at Linden Rte 55, who will head for either Jim and Molly Denton Shelter or Thomas Floyd Shelter. So Big, on April 5 I learn that knee trouble forced you to leave the trail for now. Hope your feet and knee heal quickly, looking forward to meeting you again somewhere along the trail.We pass through the town of Natural Bridge where Sweet Sixteen buys another tank of gas for me. Thank you, SS.At the James River Sweet Sixteen, Memere, Gray Feathers and I have a tailgate party lunch, featuring Queen Diva¢s incomparable veggie tuna. We walk to the north side of Rte 130 with Sweet Sixteen, who will be hiking north to the Pinnacles Picnic Ground. Powered by the Queen's veggie tuna, she bounds up the trail like a packless 6 year old. About 6 we arrive at Randy and Myra¢s in Ceres, the old Wilson place. Cathy, Dwayne, Clay, Nate and Jonan are there. Over a glamorous supper of lasagne and salad and Randy's homemade bread, we share stories and fun.Myra is excited about the success of Just for Fun Quilters, an outreach project she created and that she heads. The group has 501c(3) status as a tax-deductible charitable organization under the auspices of HOPE. They¢ve just received a grant from the National Quilting Association to replace some of the worn-out sewing machines. Several big write-ups in the paper. Do $200 Z-coil shoes make Crocs pass©? As Memere, Gray Feathers and I turn in, we find one-inch bed bugs between our sheets. Randy is a practical jokester. We'll get you back, old buddy, you won't know where or when. Stay on your toes.Randy's bought all the ingredients for his gourmet sandwiches: PB, marshmallow fluff and cinnamon raisin bread. Unfortunately he won't be able to join us at TN421. Maybe a hike later in the year.Monday April 2, 2007TN Rte 91 to TN Rte 421 Low Gap, 7 milesBreakfast features apple cinnamon pecan waffles by Randy. Goodbye, Randy and Myra, in 2 weeks we¢ll meet you at the spa in Hot Springs. Gray Feathers, Memere and I leave for TN Rte 421. Spring scene along the way, green-cloaked hillsides, forsythia in bloom, green shoots poking up thru dried old vines. Old blackened wood VA barn, wood siding applied in three directions. Pass Upper Poor Valley Rd where the Carter family came from. Saltville. Wm King built the salt works. Pass an old service station with Dr Pepper sign, abandoned, the kind of place I like. We set a car at 421 and bring the other to Rte 91, starting our 2007 hike at 12:30. Low 60¢s. On the mountain, when the winds blow, it¢s cool enough for a long sleeved-shirt. Well-marked wide easy trail through pastureland.Hello to Lori, Kyle and their dog Raja, all from Arizona. They are just starting their hike, beginning at Low Gap and heading for Katahdin. They are taking their first rest stop. Raja (his name means ¢King¢) is wearing a pack for the first time, and likes it.In places the ground is carpeted with blooming spring beauties, especially near the Double Spring shelter. Register entries:4-1-07 All who plan on staying at The Place in Damascus it got flooded last night rain Because of this The Place will be closed until June. 8-18-06 Spent the night here last night. Nice fire. Good food. No drugs.. I¢m out here trying to get clean. Cocaine is a tough habit to kick. I just hope my girlfriend can do the same back home. I don¢t know where I¢m going but I know where I¢ve been and I don¢t want to go back. It¢s been a long time since I have done any hiking. I had forgotten how much I love the outdoors. Pray for me. (Name withheld). Purple violets, yellow violets, bluets, bloodroot, trout lily leaves, not skunk cabbage but that other plant often seen with it=false hellebore, rattlesnake plantain, yellow flower, sowthistle, coltsfoot, star chickweed, rhodo buds, a few anemonesGrassier place, with a lot of young holly bushes. Pretty spring view off to the right, spring bud colors.Hear motorcycles or racing cars off to the left.Past an old homestead site, the plants still there, driveway out to Rte 421.Out at 4:15, celebrate the end of our first hike with wine, salsa and chips at Rte 91. Self-deprecating humor. We talk about those naturally beautiful women who know how to wear clothes makeup and their hair. One of us laughs she once had a ¢makeover¢ and came home looking like a clown with a big bright red mouth. One of us observes, European women are fashionable, American women look like truck drivers. Or clowns. We laugh about social gaffes we¢ve made. Being invited to a black and white wedding and not knowing what that means. Thinking perhaps the wedding party will be dressed in black and white. Never imagining the invitation meant that guests are supposed to wear black and white too. Arriving at the wedding in a coral red dress, the only person there wearing a color. I leave Memere and Gray Feathers at the Rte 91 trailhead for the night and drive to the Watauga Dam parking area. Tomorrow I¢ll hike north and they¢ll hike south. Who is at the Watauga parking area but Mike, who I met on Hump Mountain in 2005, hiking with Fred! We remember that time. This evening Mike's hiked in and out from the Vanderventer Shelter. He says staying in the shelter tonight is a man with his daughter and her friend, both women are from NY. Mike¢s done about 250 miles on the AT since we met 2 years ago on the day of his first long distance hike. Happy trails, Mike!