Date: 2007-10-16
From: Pinefield Hut, VA

To: Stealth site .4 past South River Picnic Area, VA
Miles today: 15.0

Last nite was a pretty quiet nite. I think Karen¢s trailname is The Incessant Professor now. So for now on, I¢ll refer to her as Incessant for short. This is partly due to the fact that I hike much faster, so I¢ll hike ahead and then stop and wait. Once she just about gets to me, I take off again. This isn¢t to be mean, but she just hikes steadily and incessantly. I remember Persistent used to do that with me in the beginning¢¦going up mountains that is. She was always in much better shape than me. We turned in around 10:00 last nite, after making sure my fire was properly dampened. It was actually pretty cool, so I was bundled up as usual..man I am THE biggest cold weenie in the entire world! It was still in the 50¢s!I heard something around 3¢ish, but found out this morning it was another SOBO named Dreamer, she¢s from NC. Crazy SOBO¢s¢¦hiking till 3:30 a.m.! She told me this morning she¢s been freezing at nite, so she just decided to keep hiking to stay warm. She had a really lightweight bag I noticed as she was sleeping in the shelter this morning. I sure hope she has something heavier soon, it¢s not going to stay this mild forever.I had this crazy dream last nite that some man named Michael called me and offered me a job, and I wrote down on the paper the numbers 15, but after accepting the position and hanging up the phone, I realized I didn¢t know if those numbers meant $1.50/hour or $15.00/hour for pay. So this guy calls me back to clarify that it was $1.50/hour, and I HAD to take the job because I had already accepted verbally! Hilarious man¢¦but that wasn¢t it. The dream then flipped to Persistent being totally upset (this dream does NOT reflect her true character at all..which made this even funnier), and she was ticked off because she didn¢t¢ feel well so she was going to sue the ATC (Appalachian Trail Conservancy). In this part of the dream, I couldn¢t get anyone to stop and listen to me (you know those kinds of frustrating dreams) and all I wanted to tell her was, ¢Hey! Don¢t you think you feel like crap because you just thru-hiked the ENTIRE Appalachian Trail?¢ That was it for my dream, but I¢ll tell you, I never dream like this at home¢¦only my hammock and the woods induce such craziness in my slumbering.Soooooo¢¦we were up and on the trail by 9:00 a.m. We only had 1 climb and 2.3 miles to get to Simmon¢s Gap where Incessant¢s car was waiting for her. We saw 1 deer, but that was it. No bears..damn, I really wanted her to see one like I had.We were to the car and I had resupply items in it, and I was back soloing it by 10:45 a.m. The rest of the day was actually a bit tougher. 3 decent climbs and the temps were in the mid-70¢s, so I was sweating like crazy again.Water, a big issue again. I ran into 3 guys from NJ and a woman from Germany, and the big talk was how water was. It didn¢t look like my situation was great, so I was very careful with rationing. I hate to do that, but it¢s been so dry here in VA.There were some fantastic views today. First was Little Roundtop Mt., but the best was on Hightop Mt., where I met a woman from Baltimore, and she took my picture. She also gave me the name and websit eof her friend who helps people find jobs they want, so that was cool. I¢ll check it out for sure.I was sitting on another lookout point and I hear this whistling coming up the trail. It was the old man with his 11 year old dog Ginger, and he lives right by the trail and every single day he walks 3 miles roundtrip from a trail in his backyard up Little Roundtop Mt. for exercise. He was wearing one of the groovy headset radio things with an antenna sticking out. His name was Dean, and I¢d bet he¢ll live to be 150 years old if he keeps exercising like that everday. Wow, to have the AT as your exercise path everyday.So I decided to get to this picnic area that said there was water. I was crossing my fingers, and the selection of stealth sites has been crappy due to the abundance of dead and downed trees and underbrush. Seriously, I think all it would take is one flick of a cigarette or ember from a fire and half the Shennies would be gone in minutes; that¢s how dry it is and how much dead wood is all over the ground. Today, was one of those days where everything worked out great. Not only did the picnic area have water, it also had a bathroom with soap AND water! It was nice to use the facilities, and after I cooked dinner, I hiked another .4 miles further and found an ok stealth site.How stealthy you ask? It wasn¢t quite 14 mile off the trail like park regs state it should be (actually it was more like 10 steps off the trail), BUT, 2 day hikers and their 2 dogs walked right past me as I was standing there (hammock and tarp were up and everything) and they didn¢t even know I was there. A little scary how unaware people are out there really.It¢s 67 degrees in my hammock @ 8:04 p.m. Hard to get used to these short days, but it is what it is. I suppose I should stop being a baby about the possibility of setting up camp at nite and just deal huh? Something in my brain starts telling my body that when the sun goes down out here, it¢s time to rest, so I start getting tired. My feet and calves are pretty sore, but after 3 months off, I feel amazingly good. It was so fun having Incessant with me the past few days. It forced me to slow down, and it was wonderful to only go 6-8 miles a day. I best sign off..my body is finally starting to cool off and I¢m pooped.~Certain