Date: 2006-04-09
From: Matt's Creek Shelter

To: Glasgow
Miles today: 2.2
Weather: clear sky

9 Apr 2006 - Destination: Glasgow -- skip Johns Hollow Shelter. I got up about 08:00 at Matt's Creek Shelter in no particular rush, since I was going to Glasgow to restock and had plenty of time. No satellite signal. The only thing that dried out was the Frogg Toggs. The slashes yesterday in the rain were not always clear. I expected to go to town, shop, and get back on the trail to spend the night at the Johns Hollow Shelter to save motel costs. It didn't work out that way (vide infra). The previous occupants of the shelter left a bag of trash on the hook. I took it with me. I managed to get a satellite signal at 09:00 so I will try for the 10:00 call and then leave. My fingers are freezing and my gloves did not dry out overnight.NOTE: Get a spare pair of gloves.It was so chilly last night that in the mummy bag, breathing through the mouth hole, the outside of the bag got wet from the condensation from my breath..NOTE: On sleeping bag, if it is rolled up head first you can probably use the bottom tie to loop the bag. You may even be able to do the same with the top tie if you roll it up the other way.Called for my weekly interview. I was informed that it was Sunday, not Saturday and that I had missed it. WHOOPS. When I went back in my notes I noticed where two days had gotten compressed into one, and I was very sorry. They were wondering what had happened. I promised them & myself, that I would do better next Saturday and noted to myself that, given the conditions yesterday, it was probably just as well. I then splurged and called my relatives, my C'ville resupply contact and some others.12:30 54733 - I am at just past the James River Pedestrian Overpass hitching for a ride into Glasgow five miles away. The walk to here from the shelter, mostly alongside the James River, was easy. While packing up I noticed that I appear to have misplaced my vitamins, the long tooth pick and the cathole scoop. Before I left Matt's Creek Shelter, a troop of cub scouts showed up, and then left after a couple of minutes, then a couple went by. They passed me again, going back down as I was walking out. In conversation, they told me about "Grocery Express" in Glasgow, and said that it was the best, and probably only place to go, beside the convenience stores. It is a stunning Sunday. While walking alongside the James I ate some gorp, and one of the peanuts busted out most of the dead upper right molar. No pain, as it had been root canalled many years ago. As I approached the bridge I passed a Roanoker who was out for a day hike in the James River Face Wilderness. He reiterated what the earlier couple had told me. There are a couple of people under the James River Overpass fishing. The bridge looks like an old railway bridge. I walked a little way up from the bridge toward Glasgow so that cars coming around the curve could see me. The pack is on the ground, upright, with the poles supporting it, so that drivers can tell I'm a hiker. I am not sure where the trail resumes. A beautiful yellow butterfly with black edges on its wings just went by. Roughly 50 cars passed my in a 45 minute period until 'Jeff' picked me up. He kindly dropped me off at the Grocery Express in Glasgow. He also told me that on return I should go about 1 mile up Hercules Road to get to the AT and the John's Hopkins shelter.I spent about $60+ dollars on the charge card at Grocery Express restocking peanut butter, (18 oz jar), two one pound loaves of wheat bread, gorp components, batteries, oatmeal, hot chocolate, cotton work gloves, a small 60 sheet spiral bound memo book to replace the broken recorder, and heet (methyl alcohol) for the small stove. Idiotically, I forgot the raisins for the gorp. I also splurged with a pound of hot dogs, figuring I'd eat them over the fireplace that evening, and a package of raman noodles, to test the stove's capabilities. I could not get a knee brace for my left knee, which is occasionally twitching. After I finished 2.5 hours shopping, I went outside the store, turned a couple of grocery carts on their side, and mixed up the gorp and made up my sandwiches. My refilled pack is at least as heavy as when I left Daleville. We could not find any aaa batteries that worked in the recorder, but the messages seem to still be there. We tried 4 sets of triple A batteries (three from grocery express, 1 from the convenience store) and none worked. The elderly grey haired lady who had waited on me at Grocery Express had gone off shift, and her replacement was equally kind. I left them the unused 1/2 load of bread and about 3 ounces of unused Peanut Butter, and said give it to someone who needs it. Both of these employees went out of their way to help me during this restocking expedition. I noted at the time that the motel across the street had an open sign, but decided to stick to my original plan and get back to the trail.NOTE: My right heel is hurting more than normal. There is a bone (the fifth metatarsal) protrusion in the middle of the outside of the foot (the side with the little toe). there is pain there upon pressure being applied, then putting initial weight on heel hurts. After first few minutes, the pain subsides and it becomes an endurable annoyance, but continues. It is possibly getting slightly worse over time.The lady at Grocery Express allowed me to use their bathroom, so I refilled my two liter bottles and the drinking cup with water, in addition to using the other facilities. It is indeed a pleasure to have a warm commode with hot water to wash with afterwards.NOTE:The penetrating, cold wet drizzleCauses your energy to fizzleAnd all you have left is your willIt is torture to be on this hill.[See Kipling's If]17:40 - A lady and her Monacan uncle stopped and picked me up. When she picked up my bag and put it in the back of their covered pickup she said she had worked for the state. She was a big woman, almost all muscle. They seemed to be nice people, outside of their tendency toward rampant obscenity and casual consumption of beer while driving, and they gave me a ride back down to where I could easily pick up the trail. They claimed they knew the area backwards, forwards and upside down, and that the "Pedlar's ATV trail" (ATV = All Terrain Vehicle) past Hercules road, would take me directly up to the AT right near the shelter. It was supposed to be about a mile up this wide ATV road. The lower part of this trail is called "rattlesnake trail", and Pedlars starts about 0.7 miles up.18:31 - At the intersection of South Pedlar trail and Rattlesnake trail. Going left on Peldar.18:38 - chilled and cold, I got the Orvis coat out and put it on during a pack off stop.19:11 56189 - Intersection of South Pedlar and Lone Mountain Trail. Lone Mountain appears to go straight up, Pedlar turns right and makes a loop. I chose Lone Mountain based on the geometric logic that anything coming from the left that intersects Pedlar would first have to cross Lone Mountain. I appear to have dropped my little notebook at this point, although I didn't discover that fact for a while. I walked up to the crest, which I reached about 20:06, in time for an utterly beautiful sundown off to the left while I was at the top of the Lone Mountain Trail. I never crossed the AT. On attempting to note this I discovered that I had lost the book. I walked back down under the full moon, using my new flashlight and the headlamp (which is relatively dim). I found my little book about 21:15, and reached the road about 22:30. It's cold, and I'm sweating, and my breath is condensing in the air. I was wearing the short sleeved shirt under the Orvis coat, and the blue rayon pants. After about 30 minutes I was picked up by another "Jeff" who works for Adams Construction, and has worked for them a long time, except for his mnilitary service. Knowing something about Adams Construction from one of my consulting contracts, and knowing of many of the senior people in the company meant we had a pleasant conversation about people whom he knew very well. He confirmed for me that I should have gone Hercules, and that the path I took did not touch the AT. I decided not to try for the shelter, and he took me back to Glasgow and dropped me off where I asked him to, at the motel I had earlier seen. Regardless of the sign, the motel, which is across the street from the Glasgow Grocery Express where I had been shopping earlier, was NOT open.23:30 56292 - The Grocery Express was closing up for the night, but the black lady who had earlier waited on me there told me that the motel was closed for remodeling but she would see what she could do. She called the motel's owner and he arrived about 15 minutes later. He put my bag in the back of his pickup and we drove across the steet. He opened up a unit that was ready to be used (unit 7), lugged my bag into the unit, and told me that I could stay until 2 to 3 pm if I felt it necessary. I paid him the $40.00 he asked for (he wouldn't take any extra) and thanked him. While I was waiting for him to come down, I purchased and consumed a quart of chocolate milk as a "treat". I highly recommend the Grocery Express, and especially commend the staff there. They came through for me, way above their normal responsibilities, when I had the relatively unusual mixup described above.I washed my socks in the sink, ate the 1 pound of Gwaltney beef hot dogs as supper, which I heated in their waterproof package in the hot water in the sink.NOTE: Scab on my left thumb, from monster infection that started about a month ago, came off in the hot water when I was soaking my feet in the shower base, which I was using as a half bath. I tried to open the shampoo packet that was there, and literally, after ripping each of the four corners off in an unsuccessful effort to get to the contents, I had to go get the jacknife and cut the packet open with the scissors. After soaking (and bag baliming), I watched The Avenger on TNT at 01:00 and then went to sleep, after hanging the socks over the heater vents to help them dry. Dreams of her - useless - it will never come to pass.