Date: 2008-04-20
From: John Hollow Shelter VA

To: Brown Mountain Creek Shelter VA 
Miles today: 18.3
Weather: light rain

Day 63 ¢ Sunday April 20 ¢ Brown Mountain Creek Shelter VA ¢ Miles Today: 18.3 Total Miles: 793.4We had lots of rain last night. We woke up a bit earlier than normal to find that the rain had stopped. It was about 50 degrees. We had 3 big climbs this morning so we wanted to get them done before the heat of the day arrived. Little did we know that the heat of the day wasn't going to arrive until about 1:00 p.m. The 50-degree morning with the damp air was actually quite chilly and it soon sent us diving into our backpacks for our #1 tops, knit hat and gloves. The ascents weren't as difficult as we had anticipated. I think we're so used to climbing mountains in the heat, which makes things more difficult. We got to the top and had beautiful views of the valley with fog enclosing them. It was really quite gorgeous and the fog never did clear as we continued on up to higher views. We passed a couple students from Duke University out for a day hike. Later in the day we passed a section hiker who is going to attempt the entire AT, well 99% of the AT, via day hikes with her husband dropping her off at various roads along the way and then returning to their motor home for the evening. They have quite a logistics challenge in front of them. Her name is Lady Slipper and she's from Pennsylvania. At lunchtime, we sat on the curb alongside the Blue Ridge Parkway and made our sandwiches. During our break 2 southbound section hikers stopped to talk to us. They asked how we survived the storms last night. Apparently some mountain ranges in this area got quite a bit of wind with trees coming down. We did not have any issues, luckily. One of the section hikers was Ralph as in RPH Shelter in New York. It¢s a shelter you hear so much about in the trail journals. Ralph even gave us directions to his A-frame cabin complete with a swimming pool and a promise of pizza and salad for when we get there. Of course, in the next breath he mentioned that he might be in Costa Rica when we pass through. He¢s a bit of a rebel left over from the 60s but he seemed real nice. When we get to New York, we'll see if we can't find his home and some swimming and pizza to go with it. We crossed Pedlar Dam and Lake later in the afternoon and ran into 2 section hikers who told us of Trail Magic at the next shelter - Brown Mountain Creek Shelter! They admitted to eating a Little Debbie, but there¢s still food left, they said. Our minds said, ¢There had better be food left.¢ Luckily we did not voice this thought out loud! Food can just do evil things to your mind! One of the hikers was wearing the Gregory Triconi pack ¢ the pack that Brakeman will be getting. She said she really liked it. When we got the news of Trail Magic, we were taking a break on the river bridge - about 4-5 miles shy of the shelter. Boy, you should have seen us grab our socks and shoes at the news of food! You would have thought that Brakeman had a fire lit underneath his butt. Off we went running, well at least walking real fast, to the shelter for our food. I really think that this whole thru-hike is somebody's sick imagination of a Pavlov's dog study on humans. Unfortunately, about 2.5 miles from the shelter, the skies opened up and poured on us. Not wanting to put on hot rain gear, Brakeman tried the routine of hiking with his rain jacket just thrown over his head and draped down his back. Grasshopper tried to hike using her umbrella. But eventually the rains got too heavy and we were diving into our packs for full rain gear. By the time we got to the shelter, the rain had dwindled to sprinkles. We found the nice assortment of Trail Magic goodies - banana nut muffins, little glazed donuts, and Little Debbie Swiss Rolls ¢ cr me filled chocolate cake with a fudge coating. Our hearts thought of Chris. Our stomachs thought of us. We knew we should save some for him, but we also knew we could eat all of it, destroy the evidence and Chris would never know! We figured he was a couple hours behind us, so we had a lot of time to eat and destroy the evidence before he arrived.   But we were good, we only ate 2/3rds of the goodies and saved the remaining 1/3 for him. It was now 5:00 and time to quickly set up the tent, as there was thunder in the distance and it appeared that more rain was imminent. The thunder never did get close to our valley. So far, so good. We had another nice treat when Chris arrived at camp about 7:00. By the way, he missed all the downpours of rain - he only had light sprinkles all day long. But anyway, back to the story. He scored Trail Magic (pudding) at one of the previous shelters and was so kind to bring 2 puddings back for us. Unfortunately, he said it looked like the one had been opened so Brakeman got to eat the chocolate and vanilla pudding. But it was very nice of him to think of us. Good thing we saved him some Trail Magic at this shelter!Chris carries mousetraps with him and each night he checks with all the hikers to see if they are OK with the usage of them before setting them up. So far he has caught 28 mice! I hope he continues up the trail ahead of us to get the mouse population under control before we have to stay in a shelter again.   It's 8:00 and 60 degrees. We're snug in our tent. Well, sort of snug, our backpacks are soaked, our raingear is soaked, our pack covers are soaked, and our shorts are a bit wet because we were in protest mode about putting on our rain gear. However, other than that, we're ready to go to bed with the sound of drizzle hitting on the tent roof and with our shorts tucked in either our sleeping bag or between our shirts to hopefully dry. It¢s always nice to have dry shorts to put on in the morning. Goodnight from rainy Virginia.