Date: 2008-09-04
From: VA Rt. 42 - O'Lystery Picnic Pavillion

To: Chestnut Knob
Miles today: 12.2
Weather: clear sky

Well, today the joke is on me! Or, more aptly put, I am today's joke (or is that, ¢jerk¢?) I say this (and you WILL agree with me when I finish telling my tale!) because today I pulled a First Class ¢Flippy¢. Let me explain¢¦When I first started out on this AT experience in the Spring of 2004, one of the Thru Hikers who left Springer on or about the same day that my nephew, Tom Rogers (Bill¢s oldest son) and I did was a fellow with the trail name of ¢Flippy.¢ He was quite a character ¢ very funny and extremely good natured. His trail name came from the fact that he had a flip-open cell phone and was always talking on it to his wife (and sometimes she was actually on the line, but most of the time he was just narrating in Bob Newhart style his descriptions of the people and the events going on around him ¢ all of which were very funny.)Anyway, when our ¢gaggle¢ of hikers reached the NC/GA State line that Spring, the first thing we were treated to was an up-close sight of a very weirdly shaped tree standing in the middle of the Trail: impressive and unmistakable. The second thing we experienced was the hike up Chairman¢s Bald, the first real ascent we had faced: steep and long. It was a true OMG wake-up call of what lay ahead.When ¢Flippy¢ reached the top of Chairman¢s Bald, he set his pack down on the Trail to retrieve his camera (or maybe to call his wife?) but, while doing so, he inadvertently knocked it off the Trail and, due to the steepness of the Bald, it rolled down into a ravine several hundred feet below. It took ¢Flippy¢ nearly an hour to clamber down to retrieve his pack and haul it back up to the Trail; whereupon he put it on and headed off on his way ¢ only in the wrong direction! Upon reaching the unmistakable ¢Tree in the Trail¢ he realized his mistake and had to turn around and reclaim the top of Chairman¢s Bald for basically the third time in as many hours.Having been blessed with an exceptionally good sense of direction, I¢ve chuckled over that story every time I¢ve told it. But now, unfortunately, I¢ve got a better one than that to tell. It goes like this¢¦After breakfast at Bob Evans, Bill dropped me off at the Trail juncture on Rt. 42 next to the O¢Lystery Picnic Pavilion. We waved our goodbyes and, at 9:45 am, I headed up the Trail, Northbound, carrying my regular pack which was noticeably heavier than the day pack I¢ve been using this past week because I¢ll be staying out overnight so I¢ve got my tent, stove, food, sleeping bag, etc, as well as, 3 extra liters of water (5 12 in total) due to the fact that things are getting VERY dry in these parts. After 50 minutes I had covered 2 miles and 750¢ of vertical climb, and had reached the Knot Maul Branch Shelter situated as close to the Trail as any shelter I¢ve seen in my five years of Section Hiking. It was too enticing not to stop there and check the journal, use the privy and enjoy a brief respite knowing that, according to the map, the Shelter is situated in a dell and a fairly steep climb lay immediately ahead.So, after twenty minutes of ¢break time¢ I saddled up and headed out, uphill just as I expected: invigorated, feeling strong and knowing that I only had ten miles left to get to my day¢s final destination -- the Chestnut Knoll Shelter situated on the top of a 2000¢ climb that, at least on paper, looked like it was going to be challenging. After 50 minutes I was still feeling strong and confident until, to my complete disbelief, I found myself staring at the O¢Lystery Picnic Pavilion and VA Rt. 42!!! How could this possibly be? How could I be HERE ¢ where I started from two hours earlier? Slowly the truth sunk in ¢ Mr. ¢I¢ve-Got-A-Built-In-Direction-Finder¢ had GONE THE WRONG WAY. What¢s more, I never realized it! On my trip to the shelter I picked up bits of trash as I do whenever I hike and I also used my poles to flick fallen limbs from the ¢Faye¢ winds and rain off the Trail. I recalled marveling at how clean this section of the Trail was and hypothesizing that the winds and rain had somehow been shelter from this section. It never occurred to me that the Trail condition was the result of my own handiwork ¢ something I was destined to have the opportunity to appreciate not once, but twice as I turned around to start my hike all over again ¢ only NOW it was 11:45 am and not 9:45 am and NOW I had already hiked 4 miles with an exceptionally heavy pack and had climbed 1500 feet, and NOW my day¢s journey was going to be 16.2 miles in length with 4,500¢ of vertical instead of 12.2 miles and 3,000¢ of vertical!! At first I stomped my size 14¢s up the Trail, angry with myself for having made such a dumb mistake. ¢How could anyone be so stupid?!?¢ But after a few minutes, the frown of self-contempt was replaced by a smile, then a chuckle and eventually a for-real, out-loud laugh ¢ ¢How COULD someone be so stupid?!?¢ Aah, yes ¢ nothing like one of those lessons in personal humility to start off the day, along with the chance to hike a two mile section of twig-swept Trail -- not once, but twice -- on what was otherwise a lovely Thursday morning in southern Virginia.The rest of the trip to Chestnut Knob was without any other significant events and, to my surprise (given the 4 mile "boggie" I had given myself earlier in the day!) I was still feeling ¢strong¢ as I undertook the 2,000¢ ascent to the top. The first half of the climb was typical of so many such climbs ¢ through woods and on switchbacks skirting the shoulders of ravines and washes. But the second half was a rare, incredible treat! At about 3,500¢ elevation, the Trail broke out of the woods and into a series of open, rolling meadows; drenched in the late-afternoon sunlight, each covered in golden-tasseled rye that brushed against my hands as I walked easily up the gentler slope carrying my poles. The sensation of the grasses lightly dancing against my hands conjured up images of Maximus (Russell Crowe) in the film, Gladiator, when he was walking through the Elysian Fields en route to his home in the hereafter. These fields were equally as heavenly and unlike their cultivated counterparts, their wildness was punctuated by standing islands of oaks, apple and chestnut trees and all sorts of colors from daisies, thistles, Goldenrod, Queen Anne ¢s lace, blackberries and raspberries. The sky was clear and the shelter appeared dramatically above; perched at the top in the open and made of stone ¢ fully enclosed (as protection from the wind or maybe from the neighbors given the fact that the Knob abuts the Beartown Wilderness Area?) It was phenomenally clean with bunks and a picnic table inside. Although I initially set up my tent in the meadow nearby, I changed my mind and slept indoors once I realized that the wind cresting the Knob was not going to abate and could be a deterrent from the sleep I am now thoroughly anticipating. Alone on top of Chestnut Knob, it¢s now time for lights out and for one last laugh at the recipient of his own ¢Flippy Award¢ for one of those remarkable, ¢How could you do that,¢ touches of humanness.