Date: 2005-09-27
From: Adkins, VA

To: Partnership Shelter, VA
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: scattered clouds

11.6 miles todayChief's cabinW. Jefferson, NCPartnership Shelter, Va on the trail. I didn't feel like I slept real well last night. I got up at 6am and walked up to Rhonda's for breakfast. I got lucky because the waitress was very attentive and kept my coffee cup full. Maybe I really looked like I needed it this morning. :-))) I had a couple eggs, homefries, bacon, toast and 3 pieces of French toast...and lots of coffee. I walked back to the room and stopped at the truckstop and got more coffee. I had The Weather Channel on while I packed up my stuff. It looks like some cool weather will finally be here in a couple days. Yeah!!!! I walked over to the trailhead and started walking south at 9am. I had a short day planned to Partnership Shelter where Chief and Carleen were picking me up at 2pm. There were 2 does that took off running almost soon as I got on the trail. That's twice lately that I've seen deer right near the town I was in. It had stopped raining last night, but it was still cloudy and for the first couple miles I was walking through wet overgrown grass. My shoes got soaked again after all the time I took drying them out last night. I just couldn't get my motor running this morning, so I just kind of walked slowly and eased into the day's walk. I got to Rt 615 where the Settler's Museum is and walked into the 1900's one room school house and signed the register. I've stopped here each year and the register goes back to '02, so I looked up my old entries...May '02, Nov '03, June '04 and now Sept '05. It was nice to look back and remember when I came through and who was hiking around me and to look at the different smiley faces I've used in the register over the years. :-))) I hiked on, gradually climbing until I got to Chatfield Shelter where I sat down and took another break. I signed that register and when I was done with a snack, I hiked on. There was a little water flowing in the stream by the shelter. I'll bet it was from the rain yesterday because it looked like the stream would have been one of the dry ones I've seen so much of lately. I kept climbing to finish off the 1500 foot climb and got to the summit of Glade Mountain. From there were several 300 to 400 foot ups and downs. That took me over Locust Mountain and Brushy Mountain. I saw 3 hikers walking north and stopped and we talked about 15 minutes. The guy had thru hiked in '90. His trailname was Swamp Angel and he was hiking with his wife and daughter on a 30 mile section hike. They were from the area of Florida where I am from. I hiked on to the Mt Rogers Headquarters and stopped to use the phone, but it was broken. I went to buy a coke, but the machine was locked up. I went to use the bathroom, but there was a sign on the door saying that the low water levels made them close the restrooms. Chief wasn't there yet, so I walked over to Partnership Shelter and signed the register. I had just walked back to the visitors center to wait on Chief and dry out my shoes, when he pulled up. He had Carleen with him and they brought me out a triple Wendy's hamburger, a coke and pecan pie. :-))) It was great seeing them...even if they hadn't brought food. Ha!! They asked what I wanted to do because they were all mine for the day. I told them that I had a tooth that had been worked on just before this hike that was giving me problems, so they took me to a dentist near their cabin. It turns out the tooth was abcess(?) and the dentist gave me 2 scripts...1 for penicillin for now and 1 for the same penicillin just in case it comes back before I finish my hike and can get into see my own dentist to have some work done on it. I stopped at the library and paid some bills online and then resupplied at a local grocery. Chief took me to a local shop and tried getting me to buy a shirt with a Hawaii print on it for the trail. I was able to walk around and ignore him long enough until he finally gave up. They took me to show me their cabin near the top of a mountain and what they've been doing on their "vacation." It's Carleen's "vacation", Chief is retired, but I think it makes him feel good to say that he's on vacation too. :-))) We sat out on the back deck and enjoyed a less humid afternoon and ate some snacks. It was starting to get late already, so they took me to town and we ate at a nice steakhouse. I actually got full!! It's taken alot of food today, but I couldn't even finish my baked potato. We came back to the cabin and lounged around for another hour. I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore, so I excused myself and went to bed. It was great seeing Chief and Carleen again and it really felt good to do some of the things that I needed to take care of. Thanks you guys for spending your day doing all that running around with me. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Chief, you're OK. ;-)))