Date: 2005-06-08
From: Dutch Haus B&B

To: Tye River
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

I was up early at the B&B. We had a good breakfast and got packed up. We caught the shuttle to the General store for a small resupply to make it to Waynesboro. He headed out and hiked the mile of blue blaze trail back to the AT. After a samll break at the trailhead we headed up. With the radio blaring in my head I pulled ahead of the rest of the group quick. I got to a side trail shortly that led to Spy rock. I decided to check it out. As I took the trail I saw Piker behind me comming up the trail, but he did not see me turn off. I left my pack at the base of this huge rock formation and climbed to the top to find an amazing view. The whole area was a huge rock with a number of trails to the top. I snapped a few pictures and talked to a couple guys who were also enjoying the view. I headed back down the rock but found myself in a place I did not reconize. I walked around but still could not find my pack or the trail that I had come up. So I climbed back to the top up a steep portion of the rock dislodging a large rock as I grabbed it. The rock rolled down the rock face slamming into my knee and sliding down my shin. This jsut added to the pain of not being able to find my way down. After I got back to the top, I looked for a mountain that someone had pointed out to me but they all looked the same. I saw a trail the I thought I reconized, but after climbing all the way down, I found myself at the bottom of a steep rock face, in the middle of thick brush and brairs. By this time I was too tired to climb back up, so I started walking around the base hoping to find my pack. I crawled on my hands and knees through the underbrush accomplishing nothing except getting brairs in my hands. I climbed up once again for a fresh start. so far I had been lost with no sign of any trail or my pack for about an hour. I had no water or food with me, it was all in my pack, and I was convinced I would be sleeping on top of the rock and dringing out of the stagnent pools that had formed up there. When I got to the top this time i took a trail that I had not seen yet, and withing 2 minutes I was where I needed to be and there was my pack waiting for me. I was so relieved and felt kinda dumb, but mostly thirsty so after several huge gulps I threw my pack on my back and headed off to make up some lost time, and hopefully find everone else. I climbed to the Priest shelter still tired from running around on that stupid rock for over and hour. I found the whole crew there relaxing. I told them my story and after getting a hard time for a while we all say back and laughed about it. We decided to head to the river to eat amd take a swim. When I got there I saw a note at the road crossing from Red Hat to Dorthy. It said she was at Rusty's, a hostel up the trail. I was glad to see that she was out here again. Even thought I was not going there, I hoped that I would be able to see her up the trail. We were undecided on where we were headed today, but after a dip in the river and seeing who all was camping there we decided to stay. We cooked hot dogs and set up camp. Walrus, elf, Dirty, Jobless Bob, and a few others were there so we spent the remainder of the afternoon playing hacky sack and sitting in the river. Jaybird and I decided since we were close to a road that we should hitch to the store. We took orders from everyone and headed to the road. We stood there for at least ten minutes before we ever saw a car. One passed us and then we didn't see another one. We decided it was more trouble than it was worth since we did not really need anything. I layed in the tent and read for about an hour before falling asleep.