Date: 2008-04-02
From: Just Past Wise Shelter VA

To: Trimpi Shelter VA
Miles today: 19.7
Weather: clear sky

Day 45 ¢ Wednesday April 2 ¢ Trimpi Shelter VA ¢ Miles Today: 19.7 Total Miles: 514.2When we woke this morning, it was definitely chillier. Instead of the low 50s it was about 35 degrees but it warmed to about 60 today making it a beautiful day. Trail Magic day! We stopped and talked to a trail volunteer painting white blazes on the trees. When he found out we were thru-hikers, he immediately dove into his backpack and pulled out lots of candy bars and granola bars. He held them out for us to see and we were confused on his intentions and had to ask, ¢Are they all for us?¢ ¢Take want you want¢, he responded. So we scored lots - 2 fun-sized Snickers, a granola and honey bar and a pretty good sized dark chocolate bar! Between the two of us, we had 800 calories, so that is quite a major score. We had eaten it all within 15 minutes of leaving him! Our Trail Angel lives in the Damascus area, has 15 acres and a 900 sq. ft. log cabin for sale. When we ask him how the real estate market was in this area, he jumped right on the opportunity to tell us everything about his property for sale. We got his name and address in case we wanted to look him up and see his property when we are done with the trail. He also talked to us a bit about the trail maintenance and how this section of the trail is in the National Forest and thus governed by laws and regulations. Even the privies are required to have handicap accessible ramps and stainless steel handrails. We¢d been noticing the ramps to the privies in the backcountry and were wondering what it was about. It's unfortunate we have to take our laws so literally when common sense would prevail otherwise.We also ran into some weekend hikers - two females, probably 30¢ish, who are ER physicians finishing up their residency. It was nice to stop and talk to them. One mentioned that she has a goal of eventually doing a thru-hike. We¢ve been trying to get cell phone reception the last couple days to finish our conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Grasshopper regarding their trip, but to no avail. The terrain continues to be very nice in Virginia. Tonight we¢re camped at 2900' so we left the 4000' range today, which means we left a lot of the boulders and roots behind. Virginia overall has been very nice to us so far and we're doing 17-19 mile days with probably less effort than we did 13-15 mile days further south on the trail. Life is good. The big milestone for today is that we passed over 500 miles ¢ Woo Hoo!! Almost 1/4 of the way there.We arrived at Trimpi Shelter about 6:00 and cooked our dinner at the picnic table. Got to love the picnic tables! We climbed into our tent a bit after 7:00. We've had a couple sprinkles but nothing serious. Our Trail Angel said there is a 70% chance of showers tomorrow so we shall see if it materializes. I have a feeling that this time it will since we've escaped the last couple days of showers. It's about 8:15 and 60 degrees. I think we're going to call it a night. Dusk has fallen and again we're the only ones here besides the barred owl. Hopefully if it's going to rain, it'll rain tonight and leave us a dry day for hiking tomorrow. Goodnight from over 500 miles!