Date: 2017-09-13
From: Lickskillet Hostel 

To: Jenkins Shelter
Miles today: 24.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Up around 6 a.m. Hostel morning routine. Montego took us to breakfast at Trent's grocery, and then he dropped Wesley, Stewart, & me off at the trailhead. We were headed south around 8 a.m.Today's hike would be relatively level with lots of smaller ups and downs throughout the day. The initial mile was mostly uphill, but it was gradual. Sometime during that climb, I was stung by a bee on the back of my left calf. It surprised me and hurt a lot. I tried to ignore it for about a half an hour but eventually I stopped and applied some hydrocortisone. Because I was also sweating a lot by this time, I also changed from my long sleeve shirt into my short sleeve shirt. It had been completely overcast when we started, but now the sun was shining through the trees. We could not see from the top of the ridgeline down into the valley because the clouds obscured the view.I met sobo lasher (South Bound Long Ass Section Hiker) Crazy Wolf sometime around 9 a.m. (picture) He was hiking from Harpers Ferry to North Carolina, so he had about 150 miles to go.Because I had taken a break for hydrocortisone and t-shirt, & I had stopped to talk to Crazy Wolf, I had fallen behind Wesley and Stewart, who had continued on. So now I was hiking solo. The forest was quiet. It was damp with all the rain from the tropical storm that had affected this area for the last 2 days. But now The Sun was beginning to dry things. I noticed that on the top of the Ridgeline now there was an increased number of what appeared to be small longleaf pine trees as well as the typical oak trees that I had been seeing a lot of throughout Virginia. However here there were very few bro did and rings and only a small number of mountain laurel. This gave the trail more of a forest feel as opposed to a jungle atmosphere.While hiking I called crazy Larry's hostel in Damascus Virginia to check on availability for about a week from now. It look good I also ordered a new pair of trail runners and I knew pair of super feet inserts to be delivered to Larry's. I also talked to Teresa about sending my cold weather clothes there. Teresa also set me pictures of additional food items I still had at home and I asked her to send me some of those as well. I also made a couple of additional phone calls, so I was not hiking quite as quickly as normal. Therefore I remained behind Stewart and Wesley.Around noon I caught up to them as they were sitting at the intersection with the side trail that would go to the Helvey's Mill shelter. Apparently Wesley had been there for a while and head already eaten lunch from his food bag. Stewart on the other hand had arrived only recently and intended to stop at the outpost in bland that Mongo had told us about. Apparently it was to be found right on the trail about 2 miles from where we were. So, Stewart and I headed back out on the trail to the south. It did not take long for Wesley to catch up with us. We hiked together a mile or two on our road which crossed interstate 77. Picture.We arrived at the Brushy Mountain outpost at about 1 p.m. we stayed and had lunch and purchased a gallon of water from which to refill our water bottles. There was no Freewater here. After lunch we resume our hike at about 1:30 p.m. the afternoon hike was much like the morning relatively smooth and gradual inclines up and down.Hi noted that there was a minor increase in the number of trees and branches blown down onto the trail. This was very likely due to the wind and rain from the tropical storm. However it was relatively minor. I also noted that increasingly it was this year's phone leaves that I was now seeing blown on to the trail. Prior to southern Virginia it had almost exclusively been last year's falling leaves which covered the trail, & I remember observing listen thinking about it back in April. Now it seems we were seeing mostly brown and yellow but also some red leaves from some of the trees which appear to lose them earlier than others. The mountain laurel and Rodadendron appeared to be one of these. Its leaves we're always Brown or yellow on the trail.I could not identify the tree that was the source of the red leaves I saw lying on the trail.Arrived at Jenkins shelter about 5:30 p.m. normal evening