Date: 2008-06-09
From: Wise Shelter

To: Trimpi Shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Woke up at about 5:30 and decided to just lay in my hammock and watch the stars fade away as the sun came up over the mountains. I finally pulled myself out of my hammock at around 6 when Socrates usually gets up to wake the sun up. Apparently Remy woke up in the night to use the restroom, and when he had walked away from camp he looked up to see a pair of eyes glowing back at him through the dark. Now let me tell you that I've never had this same thing happen to me, but its something that you think about every time you get up in the middle of the night out here. All you can really do is stare back and slowly back away, hoping those eyes belong to Bambi. Luckily nothing came of it, and Remy was not forced to kill anything with his throwing knife. I hit the trail around 7:40 and was pretty excited as it seemed to be working its way back up onto the ridgeline. It was really beautiful to be traversing this ridge with the sun still making its way over the horizon while to the west was the ridge coming down from Mt. Rogers that we had descended the day before. Again, I wish we could stay up here all day, but I can see the descent into the treeline coming. The trail passed through a small corralled campsite with nice National Forest privies with toilet paper-always a small plus. From there the trail went into the forest coming back up for one last look above treeline. I went off the trail and climbed up onto some rocks to get one last view. Back on the trail I passed a German family hiking and got to the first shelter for a break. I met a guy there who was out backpacking for his first time, kind of a learning trip as he said he would really like to do a thru hike the next year. We talked for a while about all different aspects of a thru hike. I could definitely tell he was new to backpacking by his cotton clothing, his boots that looked like dress shoes, and some of his other gear. But one of the most important things I've learned out here is reading people, you kinda learn to almost instantly tell about how well a person can survive out here. Although this guy's gear could probablu use a revamp, his heart was in the right place, and when it comes down to it, that's the only thing that gets you through every day out here. I said goodbye and wished him goodluck, moving on to the next shelter for lunch. Triforce and Rewind showed up about the same time, so we ate and talked about getting to Partnership Shelter tomorrow for lunch. Partnership Shelter is special in that it is located right next to a park visitors center which has a phone from which hikers can order a pizza to be delivered. We packed up and headed out, to find that what out map showed as a relatively flat afternoon of hiking was in fact littered with tough climbs. Got to the shelter about 6 and met two ladies out for a section hike, Breezy and Firefly. It started getting late and we wondered if Cornelius, Z, and Mule would show up. They finally did a few minutes before dark. The shelter was built very weird. The sleeping space was divided in half, making them extremely short, even my feet were touching the walls. I can't imagine everyone else slept well.