Date: 2003-04-24
From: Saunders Shelter

To: Lost Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 6.4
Weather: overcast clouds

I wake up thinking "Thomas Knob shelter tonite." What's an uphill 19 miles with full pack and foodbag? Pah! Child's play.No bears in the night, but strong birdsong has come to the mountains. The high-elevation birds up here have been behind the town birds, but lately they have been making up for lost time.The mountain trees have as well. The last few days have seen buds swelling and bursting into baby leaves. It has been fun to watch spring traction itself up the mountainside, crawling a bit further each day. It will be interesing to see where spring is on Mount Rogers, at over 5,700 foot elevation.Suddenly, there also seem to be more deer in the woods. I spring a doe from her bed near Saunders shelter, first thing. I search carefully for a fawn, but there is none within eyesight, and I am reluctant to disturb it (if it exists) by moving closer.Within a mile, on a high, sharp ridgeline, I top a rise and set four more deer bounding down the steep slope. I'm talking "Man-From-Snowy-River" steep. Deer are a marvel in this regard; any horse I've ever owned (except, perhaps, The Rubicon, an exceeding clever, nimble beast) would be cartwheeling buttocks over teacup down that mountainside.A river hisses down below, and soon the AT joins up with the famous Virginia Creeper Trail. This graded, bluestone track offers a sweet little trail for mountain bikes and horseback riders. It is built on old railroad beds, a thoughtful use for obsolete byways. We AT hikers get to walk along it's flat, rootless path for awhile. Suits me just fine.I backtrack to Bridge 37 though, and take a few pictures of the river. Can't stay away from that rushing water. Before I do, I plunk my backpack on a bench. Yes, a bench. This AT/Creeper trail has benches. This tickles me so much I have to take a couple of pictures of the bench. A bench on the AT! Perhaps I could start a movement - more benches on the AT! Tired of sitting on rocks and logs, hikers? Stand up for yourself (if you still possess the ability to straighten your spine) and demand more benches. Ha! Okay, I've had my fun. I admit it. I actually sat down on the bench. And enjoyed it. Some of them even have bike racks and fly-fishing platforms nearby. Two bikers roll by, stop, and question me about my journey.I check my watch. Geesh! Am I making bad time this morning, barely over a mile and hour. Plus it's an effort. Yesterday I was ready to climb Mt. Everest, today I'm ready to climb into my bag.The sky is greying over today early, in an ominous way that has my heart sinking. It's already on the cool side, fine hiking weather. C'mon, I coach myself. You've walked through colder rains; if it rains, it rains.Sigh.It gets worse. I pass Mag and Dag, Fireball, Sandal, Apricot and LoadRunner going southbound on a 17-mile slack. The outfitter dropped them off. They are going downhill with light packs; I am going uphill with a full one.They knew it was going to rain tomorrow, and thought they'd knock off the 17 today and take their zero day tomorrow. Smack! to the forehead. A brilliant plan, If I had looked closer, I might have joined them. But, it felt like the right time for me to pick up my pack and walk on.I was sad, tho. Since the beginning, I have looked forward to the Grayson Highlands. They are gorgeous, open and green, dotted with bands of feral ponies. I have been all over the Highlands a'horseback. They were the place where I first discovered the Appalachian Trail; that a trail stretched all the way to Georgia in one direction, and all the damn way to MAINE in the other. A mountain Trail through a whole bunch of states, for a long, long ways. Incredible. I NEVER, EVER, I might add, imagined that I would be doing it myself one day. Backpacking, shoot, that's HARD work! Ha!Now I will be going thru the Highlands while they are foggy and vista-blocked. Sigh again. The best-laid plans of mice and (wo)men.... Well, if that's the way it has to be, so be it. Bring it on.Passing the SOBO slackers has got me thinking again. (There's lots of time to think on the AT, and this is how the hiker's mind works.) They said Friday would be the worst day of rain. If I can't speed up, then I could do the next best thing: slow down, and try to outwait the rain. Save the 13 miles uphill push to Thomas Knob for the rainy tomorrow?I dither. When I arrive at the shelter, there are 20 kids making lunch. A Scout group? No, says Melanie Mikusa, volunteer leader. This is the American Adventure Service Corps, a group of middle and high school kids from Morganton, NC out for a 51-mile stretch.I'd never heard of the group, but it sounded pretty cool. Chapters are springing up, it's a new concept combining the multi-year involvement of Scouts with the service and outdoor emphasis of Outward Bound. Service projects include hikes to pick up trash, cleaning up rivers, cutting wood, whatever is needed.They did the Sierras last year - this year they are going to the Northwest, to do the Ragged Mountain range. My Scout troop did oragami, and was lucky to get out once a year. The only reason I stayed in Scouts was for the camping, which we rarely did. Now, I camp all day, and rarely do oragami.The Corps kids, capable, polite and interesting to talk to - who is teaching these young people to look you in the eye? - move on, leaving me alone in the shelter.In the shelter register, I see numerous refernces to donated condoms in the shelter, along with some helpful info on STDs. Who puts these out? What do they think, that we have any leftover energy?There is also a fine privy here, as nice as the shelter. Inside, I have to laugh. There is a sticker:"Please turn out the lights when you leave."Okay. No problem.Skeemer just blew in, so this should be amusing. I've been waiting for this guy. I'd heard he was behind me, and he passed me during my zero day in Shady Valley. We were on an '03 internet hiker list. Skeemer debated online and then made his decision to retire last winter. He's been behind me until now, since he started March 14, so he's made up two weeks. How do people go any faster? Two weeks? It's a mystery to me.He turns out to be alot of fun in person, with a flashing smile and a wicked sense of humor. Soon, Skeemer's friends Charlie and Eli come hiking in, along with two section hikers Free Radical and his friend The Stray. The Stray sleeps in a camping hammock. Eli moves on.Skeemer builds a campfire, as Blazin' J, Bubbaluga and Iwo the big black dog join in the shelter respite. Another surprise - Trail Frog hikes in. She'd gotten off to handle a rental problem with her house, now is back.