Date: 2008-03-27
From: Unnamed Campsite TN

To: Double Springs Shelter TN 
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: clear sky

Day 39 ¢ Thursday March 27 ¢ Double Springs Shelter TN ¢ Miles Today: 15.8 Total Miles: 442.8We were up at our normal time - about 7:00 - and it was 50 degrees already or maybe even 52! Wow, what a treat!   Today was probably one of our warmest days if not the warmest. It got up to around 70. Remember how we purposefully avoided Vandeventer Shelter last night due to the horribly steep blue blaze trail to the water source? Well, unfortunately today we would not be nominated for the Rocket Scientist Award! This morning, needing to top off our water bottles, we followed a blue blaze trail to a water source. Yes, sheepishly we admit we took the blue blaze trail that we tried so hard yesterday to avoid. We misjudged our mileage and ended up going down the horribly steep blue blaze to water, in the process adding another fall for Grasshopper! The score is now 6-1 with Grasshopper in the lead. Perhaps Brakeman took this trail on purpose?Today¢s terrain was easier, however, it seemed for some reason that our legs and bottoms of our feet were more tired than normal so I don't think we got the full benefit of the easy terrain. For most of the morning, we saw lots of farmland in the valley below us. We'd walk for half a mile, see the farmland, walk for another half a mile and still see the farmland, continue walking, and still see the farmland, etc. At one point in time, Brakeman said, "Damn, I think we're on a treadmill!"We passed an interesting yet sad monument today. It was for Uncle Nick Grindstaff and sadly the engraving reported he, ¢Lived alone; Suffered alone; and Died alone.¢ Probably quite a story behind that; though not quite sure what it is. These last few weeks we have passed many monuments on the trail. Uncle Nick Grindstaff¢s is the only one that we've taken a picture of, as the message speaks powerfully. Just past Tennessee Rt. 91 at mile marker 439, we passed an old farm that obviously has been incorporated into the National Forest. We walked through the farmland for a mile surrounded by the old barn structures, the corral, the old house, the feeding and water troughs and corral ramps used for loading up the trucks. Very neat to see all the old structures. The sad news for today is that we've figured out why our socks are getting black inside. The stitching on our shoes has pulled loose up near our toes and there is a hole in the fabric. Thus our once waterproof Gortex shoes that have 442 AT miles on them are now leaking. Brakeman deemed them to be a new fabric, Gore-Mesh. When we're in Damascus we're going to have to call the REI and get a new pair swapped out for these. We hiked to Double Springs Shelter, cooked up dinner at a picnic table (always a nice treat!) and filtered water. We debated whether to camp around the shelter area or hike on a couple more miles. Little did we realize that there were already 3 or 4 tents up on the hill behind the shelter. When they came down to filter water, they encouraged us to stay, so we ended up staying after all.The tenters turned out to be folks that we met at the Kincora Hostel 2 days ago. We had been seeing their signatures in the shelter registers and had been wondering when they leap-frogged us. We thought perhaps they leap-frogged us while we were setting up camp early one evening. Well, it turned out they yellow blazed because some of them had done parts of this trail already. With us tonight are the Canadian Uncle Max (AKA Sandlewood) and his niece Chatter, Rock Star and Just Rick.We read Rock Star¢s 2007 AT journal on Trailjournals.com before starting our adventure. She had to get off the trail because she was feeling ill. It turned out that she had cancer. Luckily she was able to quickly identify that there was a medical issue and abort her hike. With the strenuous activities thru-hiking puts on oneself, it becomes quickly apparent when medical abnormalities arise. She was able to get her cancer under control and is back for 5 weeks of section hiking! Just Rick attempted a thru-hike in 2007, but also aborted. He said he did too many miles too fast trying to keep up the speed with everybody, got burned out and quit. This year, he's getting back on the trail here where he left and will try to make it to Maine. If he does, he will then flip back to this area and go south to complete his thru-hike. This is the first time we've camped with so many people. The little ridge is just scattered with tents of many different colors along with half a dozen rainbow colored food bags hanging in the trees. Very cool looking.It's about 7:30 and still almost 60 degrees. We have both tent doors open with our stinky socks and shirts hanging on our clothesline in the tent. We'll try to leave the doors open tonight as it looks like it's going to be a beautiful evening. Our goal tomorrow is to get as close to Damascus as we can, perhaps around mile marker 459, which means we will be officially in Virginia! That will leave us just a few miles to hike into Damascus, hit the post office before it closes and do our errands at the Outfitter before Harry and Marian pick us up to whisk us away to Tom's cabin. So goodnight from nearly Virginia but still in Tennessee.