Date: 2006-05-26
From: Jenny Knob Shelter, VA

To: Wapiti Shelter, VA 
Miles today: 14.2
Weather: clear sky

Day: 70Date: 5/26/06Start: Jenny Knob Shelter, VAWeather: Cloudy, rain, blue skies, repeat...Finish: Wapiti Shelter, VAMiles: 14.2Cumulative A.T. Miles: 605.5Clay: The hike today was relatively easy compared to what we have done. We saw that Ranger Dawg had lost his glasses by the side of the road. So, we picked them up and we will try to find him tomorrow. The highlight for me today was getting to the shelter and meeting some Christian section hikers that were hard-core space scientists too--Happy, Snowman, and another fellow. We talked about some heavy stuff. They were so very edifying to us.I finished reading Jeremiah and now I'm reading about the meaninglessness of life without God in Ecclesiates.Tomorrow we are hiking 17 miles into Pearisburg. Every time we go into town it seems that we run into the town eccentric. For example, in Damascus we have run into an interesting person. This fellow, in all seriousness, has a slight brain problem we believe. He is young and he rides his bike around town during the day but at night he sometimes frequents The Place hostel. He kept telling us how much he hates his father. At the hostel he will butt into conversations and steal food and gear from hikers. When we were there the police asked him to leave The Place. In Troutdale, we were eating at the Trading Post when a guy came in and asked, "Are you thru-hikers?" We answered in the affirmative and he offered to buy our dinner. He explained that he wanted us to enjoy our stay in his hometown. "How nice!", we thought. We thanked him and we began to eat. More hikers came in and he offered to buy their meal too. Then, cross-country cyclists came in and he offered to buy their meal as well. Something smelled fishy to us and it wasn't the food. In the end, he did not pay for our our meals. The waitress said that he was the town drunk! We are expecting some grand adventure like these in Pearisburg tomorrow but we are praying that we won't have this type of adventure.Branch: Today we reached the 600 mile mark! Yeah! So, at the point on the trail where we believed we reached mile 600, we stopped and partook of a celebratory Grandma's Cookie. It was a great time.Today was a day of ferocious animal encounters. This morning, as we were climbing, I heard a noise similar to the screeches of the mouse desperately but unsuccessfully trying to escape the clutches of a snake (see Clay's entry from yesterday). At the same time, I heard a huge crashing in the bushes next to me. As the creature burst onto the trail, I let out a guttural scream and raised my hiking pole to attack the vile snake who I was sure was poised to attack me. In the split second before I swung my pole, a terrified guinea fowl-looking bird stared at me in a paralyzed fear. The poor bird, must of thought us both to be quite odd and it clucked and followed the trail for about 15 feet and then meandered back into the woods to get away from the crazy pole-toting animals. About an hour later, we were hiking downhill and were moving pretty quickly. I was not really paying attention to where I was stepping until something in the trail did not quite look right. A fairly well camouflaged snake was lying in the middle of the trail catching some sun. This time I did not jump and scream, but did stop rather abruptly. Clay, not expecting the sudden halt, ran into my pack. However, I held my ground. Being the brave woodsman that he is, Clay took control of the situation and helped to encourage the offending creature to leave the trail. This afternoon, as we were hiking along as we always do, I heard yet another crash in the woods next to me. This time, however, I was so conditioned to the animal encounters that I merely looked around waiting for the attack. No attack came. A huge whitetail deer bounded away from the trail hoping to avoid an attack from us.Well, its about 9:00 and we are hoping to get a super early start to tackle a pretty big day into Pearisburg. So, I'm going to snuggle up inside my sleeping bag and fall asleep listening to the sounds of rain hitting the tent. Goodnight.