Date: 2009-04-11
From: Tom Floyd Wayside

To: Luray, VA
Miles today: 20.0

April 11, 2009 part 2Tic called at 8:00 pm. The coverage on the east side the trail is terrible and the coverage on the west side in poor. The weather is so nasty we got a van to drive us into to Luray, VA and are in a cheap motel for the evening with no internet. We missed three days so here are three words for the day:Bear Bag The bag used by hikers to hang their food out of reach of bears and other critters, see 'Food Bag.' OLCBear Cable A permanent cable rigged high between two tree specifically for hanging bear bags. OLCBear Poll. (A Tic term not in the approved Terms list). A poll that is substituted for a tree to hand the bear bags. Picture to follow.Report for yesterday (April 10, 2009). We camped at Tom Floyd Wayside (I am confused. I thought Tic said Compton Gap Wayside. I don¢t know where they were Thurs pm).   We got up and our bear bag was 3 feet off the ground. The bag was too heavy and pulled the cable down. We hiked 10.5 miles to Gravel Springs. We had 400 to 500 foot assent which is a record for us. The 10.5 miles was not as hard as the previous day which was a 1.5 mile hike from Front Royal. We saw about 3 people a day last week.At Gravel Springs Hut there were 6 men with 2 boys and 2 pit bulls from Dover, DL, a father and son on a scouting project, and 12 from DC, and us for a total of 26 individuals. A North Bound Thru hiker took one look at this crowd and kept on going. He was a lean-mean-hiking-machine. He looked about 70 years old, but was probably 50. He started at Springer Mountain on New Year¢s Day (956.6 miles). It started to rain around midnight and kept going into the next day. April 11, 2009. It was still raining this morning. We were up early, but didn¢t start hiking until it was light. The visibility is about 40 yards and the wind is blowing at 20 to 30 mph and gusting at about 40 mph. We met Grizzly a young guy, carrying a guitar, who left Harpers Ferry on April 1. We smoked him. He spent two days at Gravel Springs and is paying big bucks for privy paper. Hiking on the leeward side isn¢t too bad, but the windward side was bad. Grizzly started ¢drafting us.¢ We will ¢leap frog¢ with him our entire time of the trail. Friends picked him up in a parking lot, and he will pick up the trail later.In 6.5 miles, we climbed between 1,100 and 1,400 miles.   We had lunch at Elk Hallow: cheese burger,fries, world famous black berry milk shake which was not that great in my opinion. I am going to lighten-up and only report on fresh bear scat. Today¢s sample was probably from Papa Bear and was ¢steaming and rolling,¢ this is a hunter¢s term. We saw does and yearlings. One doe was about 10 yards away. Terry said the visibility was so low and the wind blowing so bad she probably didn¢t even know we were there. After Elk Hallow, the weather was so bad we decided to evacuate the trail, caught a ride into Luray. We had dinner at Uncle Buck¢s Restaurant: a dozen wings, prime rib, baked potato, green beans, and peanut pie. The owner knew we were hikers and gave us 2 extra ladles of whip cream. QUESTION OF THE DAY: Sally from Austin TX where do you go to the bathroom? The same place the bears go. PERSON OF THE DAY: Opal Looke, my mother-in-law. She is 93 years old and not in good health. She was a pioneering woman: graduate of University of Texas, court reporter when it wasn¢t fashionable for women to have careers, and raised three darling daughters by herself. Hope you feel better.Love to MomMiss P & B for Tic