Date: 2004-06-20
From: Georgia

To: Maine
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Molly & Jim Denton ShelterJune 20th, 2004My 3-Month AT AnniversaryAerosmith on the little yellow box in my pocket this morning singsSweet Emotion and I'm feeling all that. Boy Scout Troop 30-strongcamped all around half we half dozen thruhikers holed up in theshelter, under siege by a teen scout tent city. Not really, but lastnight around 10-ish when sleep seemed like a good idea, there was nohaving it for them boys. I hopped up, took a cold shower from thespring-fed gravity douche box out back, and having no towel availedmyself of the scout's fire to dry off. When they discovered I was ahiking from Georgia to Maine, they asked many questions. I answered,feeling suddenly heroic and grand and Buddha-like in thatMassachusetts-born bean-eating, port-swigging hobo Kerouac kinda way. Their eyes were full of incredulous wonder and wowness. Once dry, Isaid my goodnights, returned to my loft bed in the swanky-built DentonShelter (the first heading north outa Port Royal), popped a fewExcedrin PM, plugged into Skynard's Freebird on the radio at peakvolume, and passed clean out, Party Girl & Spice snuggling tight in thebed beneath me. I awoke snug and warm and hearing the complaints of all those who frozein their summer bags in the 40 degree night. Ha! After so manysleepless nights cold and uncomfortable in my summer fleece and thatdamn hammock tent, I made the wise choice to keep reclaim my 20 degreeREI bag from the post office (and wash it four times!) and pack thehammock tent and (grudgingly but a must due to weight concerns) my MtnHardware sil-nylon tent as well, keeping only the rain fly and thestakes, an adequate shelter weighing less than a pound instead of thefour pound tent. BUT I KEPT THE BAG! YEAA! Not to celebrate thefrozen-ness of my compadres this past night, but thank God I kept mywarm bag. This boddisatva sleeps cold, baby, and I need thesnuggle-bug warm biscuit groovy gravy goose down of my REI bag. Amen.On that note, I'd meant to shoot out a note this morning to brieflyencapsulate the events of the past weeks. I realized that my some-8000words of rants just sent out on Post #10 lack some basic factoids andtime frame stuff.Essentially, I returned to the AT at Daleville, VA on June 6, hikedlike a madman doing 90 miles in 4.5 days, pulled offtrail at Montebellofor a rumored and much-enjoyed free lunch at the Dutch Haus B&Bcourtesy of the hiker-friendly owners, then, instead of returning tothe trail for the last 40 miles of hike into Waynesboro, I caught thetailwind of a coupla hitchhikers heading that way by car and voila! wasin Wb Friday afternoon whilst the whole world (except of course thehead-off-chopping Muslims) mourned Ronnie's passing. The local YMCAprovided showers and a grassy field in which to camp. I spent Saturdaythere collecting supplies both that I'd mailed myself from Californiaand another $100 worth of shit from the local Dollar General store,drank a 12-pack and parlayed quite pleasantly with new friends Flatbedand Whiskey there in the YMCA park, got fed a great BBQ by angels Gravy& Korpi around noon and headed out Monday morning to make up the milesI'd missed coming early into town Friday. Monday night, back at CampSmelly Hiker out back the Y, I'd all but given up on finding anyone toaccompany me on my much-dreamed of "Aqua Blaze." The idea was to riverraft or canoe a stretch of the Shenandoah River equidistant to thelength of the Shenandoah Mtns, as the one parallels the other from thevalley to the west. It was a super cool idea, but everyone I asked justwasn't interested. Well, they WERE interested and envious but all hungup on being religious about stickin' to the White Blazes. Fine. Igave up.When Monday night Party Girl arrived at Camp Y and with her a new beaunamed Spiceman. The rest is history, and the subject of the followingseveral dayze of rants.Enjoy! -RSM Jester the Duke For the full story of Ricks' journey, visit Jigglebox.com