Date: 2005-04-05
From: Ashby Gap, Va.

To: Bears Den Hostel, Va.
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: clear sky

13.5 miles todayStarting location; Ashby Gap, Va.Hiked to; Bears Den Hostel, Va. I'll start this entry with an update on what I've been up to because I've been getting emails wondering where the heck I am. I hiked to where the Florida Trail turns west near the Georgia border and decided to come back and get on the A.T. It was getting very humid and the attack mosquitos were out, so I plan on finishing up the Florida Trail next winter. I stopped by Fontana Dam, NC looking for some friends that are doing a thru hike this year on the A.T. I found them the second day and hung around with them for another day. I still wasn't sure what I was going to do other than go ahead and finish my thru hike. I really didn't want to finish it until April 30th just so Hippie could never beat me by taking the longest time to complete a thru hike. An April 30th finish would make it 365 days long...the longest time (FOR THE BEANCOUNTERS) you can take and still call it a thru hike. Moosie and Goldilocks were hungry when they went grocery shopping and had way too much food. They were just heading into the Smoky Mountains and asked if I would take the extra food to Standing Bear Hostel on the north side of the Smokys. When I got there, I ran into Hippie. We talked and decided to hike to Damascus, Va together. She's out hiking until she runs out of money, then plans on going back to work this year. I haven't been journaling that hike because I've already done that section, so it doesn't count on this thru hike...just extra mileage and more fun for me. I had no problems with the long climb north over Roan Mountain. I wasn't sure how these flatlander legs would do with that hill. My curse of Hump Mountain continues though. Hippie and I could see it all day and it was beautiful. We decided to hike over it at night, but by the time we got up there, we were in a cold, blowing cloud. That's the only mountain on the A.T. that I've never had a view from. We stopped at Kincora and stayed an extra day to help Bob Peoples with a day of volunteer trail work. We got to build more sidehill trail. A few days ago, I left Hippie in Damascus and headed to a friends house in Maryland for a day, then went to Richmond, Va and helped Goosebump and Rainbow Slick move in to their new apartment. When we were done, I headed to the trailhead at Ashby Gap and slept there in the back of my truck. When I woke up, I decided to just start hiking north from there on some of the 160 miles of trail that I have left. I will be flippin' north on Thursday and walking back down to Bears Den Hostel. Hellbender, the friend from Maryland wanted to take a day off work and shuttle me around. That works out great for me because I'll walk right back to my truck and then I'll only have one section of 77 miles left. That gets us to today. :-)) I woke up in the back of my truck this morning and was in no hurry to get moving. I had two cups of coffee and breakfast, then went through my backpack to make sure I had all my stuff. I left the truck parked at the trail head and started walking at 10am. It felt great to be knocking off some of the miles that I've put off for so long. I've wanted to do this for some time now, but there's that bet with Hippie, so I kept walking miles in other places and on other trails. I saw a deer right away. It was a beautiful day with full sun and mild temperatures. I had forgot that this was the section that is called the "Roller Coaster." It wasn't bad though. There are lots of little 300 to 500 foot ups and downs, but it's just what I wanted. It felt really good to use the different muscles all day. I did come up on another couple deer. That was nice because I hadn't seen many lately. The trees are starting to bud and there are some wildflowers already coming up. The trail had plenty of very nice springs today too. I stopped by Rod Hollow Shelter and took about an hour break reading through the register. Then I hiked another seven miles to Sam Moore Shelter and did the same thing. I was in no hurry because I was only walking 13 miles today. I stopped by some nice streams and sat for a while. I could really get lazy hiking like this. I got to Bears Den Hostel and met David who said that Queen Diva had seen me through the window and invited me to join them for a chicken dinner!! Life is good on the trail. I had heard that Queen Diva was here. This is the first time I've ever stopped by here, but it won't be my last. This place is really nice and very clean. Thanks for a great meal Queen Diva. There is a hiker here that did a sobo thru hike in '03 around the same time as I did. His name is Jaws. I never ran into him even though we were hiking in the same areas near the same time. I called Hellbender and made arrangements to be picked up here on Thursday morning, so it looks like a zero already. ;-)) Oh well, It's a great place to hang out for a day. Maybe I'll walk down to the Horseshoe Curve Pub for lunch tomorrow. They make very good hamburgers there. I'll get back to my truck tomorrow and move it up here so when Hellbender gets here all we have to do is drive to southern Pennsylvania and I'll walk back here. Off to send this out to my FABULOUS, cheerful and intelligent TRANSCRIBER Jan LiteShoe.Another great day on the A.T.