Date: 2003-06-05
From: Terrapin Station Hostel

To: Manassas Gap Shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: broken clouds

We started relatively late. I was the last person to get up in the full hostel. In fact, when I got up only Ned, Mugato, and Zoolander were left. We played some more euchre. Zoolander and I cleaned up effortlessly. When Mike got back from shuttle #2 he drove Ned and me to Martin¢s Grocery in Front Royal. While we were shopping, on of the cashiers approached Ned and said, ¢Ned?¢ He did not know her, but she is Mrs. McGreevy, Katie¢s mom! We checked out in her line and then waited outside for her to go on break. We talked to her for a little while ¢ it turned out she had met Fremont and Gator the day before! She had offered those dirty slobs a shower, but they were too anxious to get back on the trail. Anyway it was very fun to get to see her again. (I hadn¢t seen her since the first day o f college).        We managed to get back on the trail by 1 pm. We had to book it to make it to Manassas Gap Shelter where Mugato and Zoolander were waiting to play some more euchre. We had a giant mud bog to cross near the Zoological Park. Fence on one side, briars on the other, and nasty smelling, ankle deep, oily water covered mud in the middle. We took off our socks, completely soiled our shoes, then rinsed our shoes by standing in a creek when we were done. Then we walked awhile with no socks trying to let our shoes dry. It worked pretty well. Soon after the bog I came across the first snake that I did not kick, step on, or step over before seeing ti. Normally, I step on the snake and only notice it after Ned yells at me so I was proud of this new progress. Unfortunately, I regressed a few hours later when I stepped over a 4 foot black snake without seeing it.        On our way to the shelter we got passed by ¢Healer.¢ He literally ran down the mountain as we walked behind him. We met him again at Jim and Molly Denton Shelter. It was really hard for us to leave, as it was the most beautiful shelter I¢ve seen so far (covered picnic area, deck with large reclining bench, shower, and privy with 4 12 rolls of TP) but we had to make it to our euchre date. Healer, on the other hand, had no problem passing this shelter up. Although he had already come 18 miles, althought he complained that is ankle was killing him, although he said his vision was poor, he declared that he would do 5.5 more miles and another 25 tomorrow. From this, we deduced that healer was not your ordinary thru hiker. To affirm his conclusion, healer handled glowing coals at least three times tonite. When Mugato expressed his amazement healer said ¢You have never walked on coals?¢ As you might be guessing, healer turned out to be a simply amazing person. A retired doctor, healer has been practicing Tai Chi for most of his life, lost a good part of his vision to multiple sclerosis, but is defeating the disease by ¢burning it out of his body.¢ He also claims to have treated 127 hikers without medication. But aside from all this he seemed to be filled with sincere love of life and gratitude for everything and everyone. We all felt lucky to spend the evening with him, roasting marshmallow. We played some more euchre, Zoolander and I got pizzad, and we went to bed.                                                        Chicken Feet