Date: 2017-04-11
From: Thomas Knob Shelter

To: Stealth Site, VA
Miles today: 19.1
Weather: clear sky

4/11/17 Stealth Camp, VAMiles hiked: 516.5, Miles to go: 1673.3I awoke this morning to the clip-clop of little hooves as five ponies arrived at the shelter. A couple of the bolder ones even stuck their heads in the shelter to check on us. I suspect the ponies make regular visits to the shelter at breakfast and dinner time. After visiting with the ponies and eating our breakfast, 1st Sgt and I packed up and got ready to head out. As usual, Courtney (now called Brie), Hummingbird, and Sitting Bull took their time getting ready since they all hike so fast. Surprisingly, Uncle Heather had not headed out before daybreak as is his usual habit. He was complaining of a migraine and decided to stick around and sleep a little longer. 1st Sgt and I headed out into another beautiful morning. We hiked across the stark beauty of the Grayson Highlands, with its open balds, rocky outcrops, and row upon row of mountains marching off into the distance. It makes me think of what the Scottish Highlands must look like. In fact, at one point, I climbed upon a rock outcrop to get better cellphone signal to call Marguerite. A section hiker we met yesterday passed by and she commented that I looked like a Scottish Clansman standing on the rock in my kilt with the rising sun backlighting me. I imagine the cellphone in my hand kind of dashed the illusion. We saw many more ponies as we hiked across Grayson Highlands and saw many section hikers out enjoying the scenery. We were both pleased to find we could easily fit through a rock formation called "Fatman Squeeze" that the trail passed through. We were also pleased to pass the 500 mile mark on our hike today. We are nearing one quarter of the trail completed!We both remarked on how much better we felt today compared to yesterday. I guess we are getting used to the heat, plus the elevation changes were much more gradual than yesterday. That's good, since we needed to make up about five miles that we didn't hike yesterday. We stopped in at Wise Shelter for a late morning break and saw in the shelter register that Darwin & Company had spent the previous night there. I miss Lumber Jill, Winter, and Oz; but, I'm pretty sure we won't ever catch back up with them. We continued our trek across the highlands and finally reached Old Orchard Shelter around 2:00 pm, where we stopped for lunch. We were joined by two brothers, both doctors, and their young-adult children. They were doing a three day hike in the area. It turns out that the brothers, both a little older than me, were originally from Fairmont, WV and one of the brothers lives in Charleston, WV, just a couple of miles from my mom. So, it turns out we know a lot of the same people. They were all such nice people and were very interested to hear details of our thru hike. They especially liked hearing about our rag tag group of hikers that includes two older retired guys, a recent high school grad, a college student, an Army medic just out of the service, and a drag queen. You know, it doesn't seem all that strange until you tell someone else about it. After a nice long lunch and visit, we continued on to our final destination at Hurricane Creek Shelter. We arrived around 5:30 pm; but, we weren't too impressed. It sat on sloping ground and the tenting area was located quite a distance from the shelter. As we talked to the two hikers who were already there, Hummingbird arrived and announced that he was pushing on to the next shelter. Sitting Bull and Brie arrived in short order and said they were also pushing on and that Uncle Heather had passed them earlier and was also pressing on. That's all it took. 1st Sgt and I shouldered our packs and headed out. 1st Sgt and I ended up hiking another three miles before finding a suitable spot to set up camp. We passed Uncle Heather where he'd stopped for the night and Hummingbird, Sitting Bull , and Brie all passed us. We ended up hiking 19.1 miles today, which will make the hike to Partnership Shelter tomorrow much more manageable. We are all making for Partnership Shelter because it's one of the few shelters where you can get pizza delivered to the shelter! Also, 1st Sgt and I are on a tight timeline and the extra miles today made up for the short day yesterday. We are on a tight timeline because we have to be at mile marker 544.0, where the AT passes under I-81, by 4:00 pm on Thursday. We are getting picked up by Enterprise Rent-a-Car and we are then driving to my mom's house in Charleston, WV, where Marguerite will meet us. 1st Sgt will then return the rental car on Friday and continue his hike while I go back to Morgantown with Marguerite to pack our house for the move to Knoxville, TN. After much internal debate and weighing of alternatives, I've decided that when I return to the trail after helping Marguerite get settled in Knoxville, I am going to jump ahead to wherever 1st Sgt is (probably somewhere near the entrance to Shenandoah National Park) and complete the hike with him. I will then return and finish the portion in VA that I missed. As much as yellow blazing a portion of the trail does not fit in with my Purist mindset, I just think that 1st Sgt and I make too good of a team to let that slip away (heck, the younger hikers even call us "The Dads"). Plus, if I run into a time crunch for any other reason, it would be much easier to finish a portion in VA than in ME.