Date: 2007-11-06
From: Williamsburg, VA

To: Brown Mtn. Creek Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

I made it out of Williamsburg, and am back on the trail. It felt good to start walking again, especially with the lighter pack! I was really surprised with the difference that it made; quite noticeable. Despite the fact that I was carrying a lot of food, I was able to make really good time. Dad dropped me off at Rockfish Gap at 11, and I started walking and made good time. I came across a group of old people from the Old Dominion Appalachian Trail Club, and they were really nice. I told them that I had just switched to my cold weather gear, and they laughed, because I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I came across a couple who had gone NOBO in 1999, and they couldn't stop talking about how cold it was. I pushed on over the top of Humpback Mtn, which had looked rather significant as we had driven towards it on the interstate. It was rather significant, to say the least. There were some cool views on the south exposure, however, of a ski resort and towns in the valleys on both sides. About 3 miles later, I came across Seaweed Sally, Tits and Cricket, and they said they were going to hitch to the Hard Time Hollow. I said that I was going to push on since I had just spent the last four nights inside, and left them at Dripping Rock on the Blue Ridge Parkway. After four miles, I came across Uly, Runway and Andrew standing on the side of the road with five other people from a college group. The others said that they had a ride with the people to the Hard Time Hollow, so I figured that since there was going to be a ride showing up in a few minutes that I might as well give the place a shot. We arrived to find a really long driveway lined with a rather crazy collection of signs. The Hollow is a totally back-to-basics place where this dude Rusty lives, and has been taking in hikers since 1982! He actually has the only driveway in the country that actually empties out into a National Park. There was another SOBO there, Betsy, who I had unknowingly passed in the morning. I was tearing up Humpback and saw someone with a big pack sitting on a rock in the middle of the trail. She moved her legs as I walked by, and I said "you're fine," to indicate that she didn't need to move, and kept on trucking. I had no idea that the person was a SOBO, and appologized profusely when I met her at Rusty's for just blowing by and not even stopping to say hello. We cooked up some hot dogs, listened to Rusty tell stories and crashed in the bunkhouse.We all awoke on the fourth torn about whether or not to take zeros. Some of the people went to church with Rusty, and Tits, Cricket, Uly and I had a ping-pong tournament. When Rusty got back with the others, he cooked up these massive blueberry pancakes in a 24 inch frying pan over a woodstove; they were absolutely amazing! Due to some confusion about the amount that could be eaten by the group, I ended up eating five, each of which was a good 3/4 of an inch thick and probably 9 inches in diameter. Tits had never held a gun before, so Rusty got out a 12 gauge and we shot some trap, which was fun. We sat around the woodstove for the evening after Rusty took some of us to Wal-mart to get snacks, and then retreated to the movie hut, where we watched Monty Python's Meaning of Life. Apparently Rusty didn't approve of the movie, because he burned it after it was over.We all knew that it would be tough to leave when we got up the next morning, but managed to all be shuttled back to the trail by 12. We climbed up and over a 500 foot hill that wasn't in the Companion right after we got out of Reed's Gap, which was quite the surprise, and then caught a blue blaze when we got to the Maupin Field Shelter. There were two options; 7 miles on the AT of rather significant climbing, but good views, or 3 miles on what used to be the AT and is even steeper, but goes past some really neat waterfalls. We were interested in saving time since we had gotten a late start, so we went with the waterfalls. We had a good time, and made it down to the base of The Priest by 4:30. We sat around and took a little snack break to prepare ourselves for the 3,000 foot continual climb, and headed out at 5, head lamps at the ready. It got dark pretty quickly, as we were already walking in the shadow of the mountain, and I experienced the wonderfulness of my new lamp. I was walking with Runway and Andrew when we thought we spotted a tent off of the trail, we were shining our lights on it when someone asked which direction we were headed. It was Missinglink, another SOBO, who had been well ahead of us before taking off a few weeks to go home to Georgia for a class or something. We talked for a bit and then headed out. While the new light is nice, I still am not a huge fan of walking in the dark, so I hustled ahead of everyone else and made it to the top of The Priest to find a few spotty views of the lights below, and some clouds with no moon. A few minutes of walking brought me to the shelter, where I found Roy, El Presidente and Burt. Roy had set up his tent inside the shelter because it was supposed to be really cold, but took it down when he found out that there were definitely 4 people behind me, and maybe even 7. Tits, Seaweed Sally and Cricket did not show (they were four miles behind us from the start), which was good, and we ended up being able to fit everyone in without too many problems. It froze overnight, which made the metal toilet seat an interesting experience. I had only met El Prez briefly when I ran into the SOBO party train near the halfway point in Pennsylvania, but we left together and hiked for nearly the whole day. He lit a fire at lunch to toast a bagel, which I thought was pretty funny. There weren't too many amazing views during the morning, but we did get to go over our first two balds of the trip, which was really neat. I found out that I can take black and white pictures with my camera, so I experimented with that for a bit, which was interesting. For those unfamiliar, balds are mountain tops that are grassy and have no significant other vegetation. Theories abound regarding their existance, from aliens to farmers. Today, many of them are mowed or burned to fend off encroachment from surrounding forests. It's an interesting experience to be standing in the middle of a field at the top of a mountain and not having to look through any trees to see anything. El Prez had pulled a bit ahead of me after lunch, but I caught him halfway up the second of the two balds, Cold Mtn., talking to a NOBO I had met in Hanover, NH at the Bagel Basement, Walking Will. It was really, really windy, so I didn't hang around for too long, and we actually ran uphill for about a tenth of a mile after talking to Will and the people with him in order to warm back up. Prez and I tore up the remaining miles to the Brown Mtn. Creek Shelter. We crossed US 60 about 2 miles before the shelter, and it was just a tiny 2 lane road! It was rather surprising as it's a four lane road right down the middle of Williamsburg with a stop light every quarter mile. We came across a sign that gave some information on the history of the valley, which was settled by freed slaves who took up sharecropping up through the early 1920s. If they had their own horse, they paid 1/4 of their grain to the landowner, if they had to use the landowner's horses, they paid 1/2 of their grain--doesn't sound like a very glamorous existance. We were rather surprised to come across Betsy standing in the middle of the trail, as she was well behind us previously; she had gone into town and taken a rather creative route to get back to the trail that put her out way in front of us. We lit a big fire, enjoyed the clean, cold creek water and cooked up lots of food when Runway, Andrew and Uly arrived.