Date: 2004-06-13
From: Four Pines Hostel, Catawba, Va.

To: 2 1/2 miles north of Lamberts Meadow Shelter, Va
Miles today: 18.6
Weather: broken clouds

18.6 miles today2 1/2 miles north of Lamberts Meadow Shelter, Va.Stealth tentingI slept outside last night. I don't do well with noise {snoring} at the hostel, so I took my cot outside and slept under the clouds....there were no stars to look at here last night. It even drizzled on me a few times, but not enough to make me go back inside. I still didn't sleep too well. I know better than to have caffiene so late, but I did it anyway. I layed in my cot and listened to the radio some and listened to the bull frogs some and didn't fall asleep until about 3am. I watched alot of fireflies too. Since I'm a confirmed morning person, I got up at 5am and went in and took a shower and then went out and played fetch with Balloo, Joe's wiemeriemer {sp?} dog. He likes to fetch logs so we both got a good workout. A little after 6am, I ran up to the store about .7 miles away...yes, I really ran. I haven't ran in a couple of months. I must have extra energy from that good meal last night. I got my coffee and a couple of egg biscuits and resupplied with enough food to g! et me to Daleville, Va. Dalevile is only 26 miles away, so I'll be there early tomorrow. I'm just waiting on Joe to get up so I can thank him for his hospitality and then I'll be off walking. It's very foggy right now and supposed to stay that way with a chance of thunder storms and highs in the upper 70s.I left the hostel at 8:30am, but before I left I helped myself to a bunch of cherries off one of his trees. At 10am, I was walking along a ridge and it was so foggy out that I could only see about 150' and it started to rain. With this much humidity out, you can really see the art work of the spider webs. I'm able to see them in the trail and get them out of the way with my hiking poles instead of my face. About 5 miles into todays hike I found a wild mulberry tree and helped myself to some. They're one of my favorites. At about 11am I walked the mile down to The Homeplace Restaurant from a road crossing. It was raining hard and the fog was still thick. Yeah, I know, I just couldn't pass on an opportunity like this to get a great Sunday dinner. I was very good and didn't eat too much. I enjoyed another peach cobbler with ice cream for desert too. I hitched a ride back to the trail and got a ride almost instantly with a lady in a brand new Honda Element. She was wearing a Sun! day dress with a white bonnet and smelled much better than me. I found out that she has a trail name....Blue Sky. Her husband did a southbound thru hike in '78 and goes by the name of Sobo. I got back to the trail at 12:30pm and Yoga Monkey was there, so we talked a while and hike together for about 45 minutes. I let her hike on because I was walking slow today. I came to Johns Spring Shelter and stopped to sign the register and Moose was there. I found a nice spring and dumped out the water I had and got good spring water. I hiked on to Catawba Mountain Shelter and took another short break. I ran into a southbound section hiker with a big yellow lab dog and that dog must have liked me. He bit me on the butt twice while I was talking to Tim. He didn't bite me hard, he was just playing, but it breaks your concentration when you're talking and being nipped in the bud by a lab. When I climbed up to McAfee Knob, Yoga Monkey was there and we took each others pictures of us stand! ing out on the edge of the cliff. It was very foggy up there and it should make an interesting picture. At 5pm, I was on Tinker Cliffs and eating a lite snack and the clouds were blowing by opening up a view of the valley below every once in a while. Beautiful day. I hiked on to Lamberts Meadow Shelter and I ran into 3 girls that I had seen at Fontana Dam before I started my thru hike. They are skipping ahead soon to Massachusetts and going to hike with a friend of mine...Quincy Girl. It's a small world. Just 5 minutes before I found this tent site, I scared a raccoon up a tree. He picked a dead tree and I could see him really well. He was as far up as he could go and he was watching me and seemed nervous. I set up my tent on a ridge and I've got a great view of the valley below and the lights from the farm houses are flickering. I do have my tent set up a little closer to the trail than I like...I'm only about 15' from the trail. I couldn't find any sites farther away. I'm hiking with a brand new pair of socks today. I finally had to shoot the old pair. That's right...I'm a well dressed hiker. Another great day on the A.T.