Date: 2003-06-05
From: Jenkins Shelter

To: Helveys Mill Shelter
Miles today: 13.8
Weather: scattered clouds

Craig says...It was a dry evening and a crisp bright morning that seemed more indicative of autumn than the summer swiftly approaching. It was pleasant to roll out of the tent, stretch the arms, scratch the butt, and go about the business of packing without having to deal with wet foodbags, wet tent, wet socks, wet shoes, and so one...We were up around 7:30AM, earlier than usual, because we had to make it ten miles plus the hitch to Bland, VA before the Post Office closed at 4:30. We were expecting some packages, one being a 'suprise' from my mother. Just knowing you have something waiting for you from someone who you love, anything, gives the day a heightened sense of meaning and excitement, and makes getting up alot easier. While our mental and spiritual states were soaring, our physical condition was slowly plumetting. We were both really stiff and in very considerable pain. Erin's achilles pain was increasing and my ankle was much worse than yesterday. During the night whenever we switched sleeping positions, which was often, we would both call out in pain and then ease each other back to sleep by drowsily rubbing each others arms in a sleepy attempt at comforting. We both took handfulls of advil with our pop-tarts and skipped morning coffee replacing it with caffinated, coffee flavored mints we'd found at the checkout counter at Ingles. (Which I must say works quickly and well.) Today was also a landmark in our journey in that we decided it was going to be our first 'Blue Blaze' day. Which means that we were going to stray from the white blazed AT and hike a blue blazed side trail that would eventually meet back up with it at some distance down the trail. OFCOURSE it was with absolute pure and noble intentions that we were going to wander from the great and historic AT and the intentions were as such: We had to get to the PO by atleast 4:30 and a southbounder had told of how about four miles down the trail the AT dipped down flat straight hill and then came to a stream that instead of following it mindlessly and sadistically crossed the same swollen stream atleast twelve times. And the stream crossings were quite tricky and often times impassible without just wading across and soaking your feet. All of this could be avoided by simply taking the flat dry blue-blazed route aptly named the "High Water Trail" that would skip it entirely and meet up with it at the end. Now I consider myself a purist hiker, and if not absolutely pure, then only minutely tainted, and it didn't take much convincing to get me to go. What was the purpose of leaving the ridge to run you through an obstacle course only to go back up and be flat again?It was true. The trail was dry, flat, and pleasant, and when Erin and I met up with the AT we agreed they should have just made this the trail. Yes, the AT should be challenging. And it is. But there have been many many streams we have already crossed and thousands more left. There is no need to cram them all in one day. Besides, the challenge lies less in the physical exertion and more in fighting the mental fatigue of doing the same activity day in and day out in all different types of weather.We hauled ass, listening to our headphones, anticipating cold soda and fun packages, and met up with the road at around 1:30. Way ahead of schedule. The road was tiny and dirty, and the wind lifted waves of sand down the street. You could hear the rush of traffic coming off of I-81 far below. Everything looked deserted. To our left was an empty, rickety senior center with dark dirty windows. Across the street stood a small white chapel adorned with a modest steeple, a dirt and grass front lawn, and three crosses above its double-doors. The first one was small and had the word 'Sheep' written below. The middle cross was large and had 'Savior' written below, and the last cross was the same as the first with 'Goats' written below. We wondered if we would ever see a car.We waited for about twenty minutes and few cars did pass, most going in the opposite direction, before an old bearded man in a red pickup stopped and brought us down the long hill that winded into town. Bland is a tiny mountain town with a small grocery store, a huge courthouse, a DQ, and only one temporary traffic light that hangs at the entrance of a one lane bridge under construction. We saw a few hikers milling about, sitting in the shade with sodas, one at the side of the road with his thumb out trying to hitch back out to the trail. It reminded me of the constant cycle of trail towns. He was on his way out, we were on our way in. He dropped us off at the PO and wished us good luck and we did the same. We rushed in, showed the man our ID's and ripped our packages open on the lawn.I won't go through everything we got but it was alot. And it was like being a five year old coming down the stairs on Christmas. Thanks Mom. Erin says:The funniest part about opening our packages and examining the goods was that it was very windy out. We had to keep chasing shopping bags and ziplocks all over the post office side lawn to recover them before they sailed away.I made a huge and sad discovery today at the post office. I was looking down at my shoe and realized that the mesh on the inner side of my left shoe had split entirely open. SHOE EMERGENCY - my shoes are literally falling apart now. Duct tape? I ran over to the pay phone across the street at the IGA and called home to have my old LL Bean boots sent to me right away. Luckily Bri was at home and willing to rush over to the post office and send my boots Express Mail (big bucks) so that they would arrive in 2 days when we get to Pearisburg. I decided to have her send me my boots instead of my other pair of running shoes because maybe a more structured/secure shoe will mean less constant foot pain for me? I hope the boots do arrive on time! My running shoes are a mess - no wonder I had to keep removing little rocks all day today from my left shoe! Craig resumes and says:It took us a while to hitch back, but eventually someone else in a pickup sympathized and brought us back up the long hill to the trail.After a long climb back up to a ridge, we ended up at Helvey's Mill Shelter where Boogey and Ladybug were sipping Budweiser cans at the picnic table. (We also carried two beers up to the shelter.) During our climb up, we came across a loaf of bread in the middle of the trail. Erin immediately recognized the bread as Ladybug's because we'd seen her in Bland with that loaf strapped to the outside back of her pack. Erin figured it must have fallen during the climb and she didn't notice it drop. So Erin fastened the bread loaf onto the back of my pack and we brought it to the shelter with us knowing Ladybug would be there. It was really fun to present her with her bread! "My bread - you found my bread," she exclaimed. Food is a big deal to a hiker, and to lose one's nourishment is like losing a limb. She said we made her day by rescuing her bread. After the tearful and joyful reunion, we all sat around the table for a while and chatted about the trail, the long, long, trip down the trail to get water, trail relationships, beer, cicadas, careers, and anything else we could think of. Afterwards Erin and I set up camp on some soft pineneedles a little ways from the shelter. I hung the food bag and Erin and I finished our beers while gazing up at the clear open sky. A crescent moon rose from behind the hills. It looked like it would be another dry night. We hoped.Erin says:I'm just proud of us for making it in and out of town without getting sucked in. We did it! It was fun hiking all day with an afternoon break in a town to have a good meal (we ate club sandwiches at the gas station restaurant). It was also nice to have a satisfied tummy for the climb out of Bland. The sun cast a warm glow amongst the trees and the temp had dropped to a nice breezy warm for our late afternoon hike to the shelter. Plus, there is something really nice about getting to a shelter and not having to worry about making food and cleaning our pot.