Date: 2006-04-07
From: Cornelius Creek Shelter

To: Thunder Hill Shelter
Miles today: 6.7
Weather: overcast clouds

7 Apr 2006 - Destination: Thunder Hill ShelterI left Cornelius Shelter about 9:20. By 10:00 the entire Elks Home contigent had passed me and said their goodbyes, since they were not staying at the next shelter but going on for pickup at the overlook. It is a beautiful day. Last night it rained, but it hasn't rained this morning.NOTE: I need to rearrange my packing. Packing is taking me far to long in the morning. I need to try putting the sleeping bag on top, and leaving a lot of stuff packed on the bottom, so I don't have to repack everything each morning.Lovely day so far, but I think it is going to be raining. I have the Frogg Togg bottoms on while the Frogg Togg top is in the belly bag. I have rearranged a lot of stuff. I came out only with the high tech shirt. Everything else is soaked, and the black tank, and then the Orvis coat are strapped to the outside of the pack. All the other stuff is in the pack this morning. Not much else to say, Beautiful day, dreamed of her, dreamed of plans, do this again next year with her, break for Burning Man, then Peace Corps. who knows, May not even survive this. I may change my mind. I think I'm crazy, 06grock.htmlthinking about doing this again, having not even finished it the first time. The going very slow. My right heel bothers me very much in the morning, and then tempers down to a bearable annoyance after about the first five hundred steps I take in the morning. Trying to structure my food intake and elimination so that I eliminate in the morning just before hitting the trail and then I don't have to go after midnight because I don't drink anything after 06:30-7:00, essentially after supper. Seems to be working well the last couple of nights, which is especially nice given that I have been with the Elk crew. Doesn't much matter when I am alone, by myself.12:33 41319 - I have just passed Parker's Gap Road. I have done 2.7 miles and have another 2.4 miles to go before I reach the shelter. Feeling good, restricted food today, I'm holding down on the gorp and everything else. Otherwise its been a steady, steady uphill. We have 19 wooden steps in a staircase coming up off Parker's Gap road, from the road to the actual trail. The whole place looks beautiful. I don't see a sign of the rain that they are promising, which is fine with me. I have moved the gloves to the belt, and hooked them on the belly belt. Everything is fine.13:55 41849 - Just passed, Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil of Goodview, Va. She ran the trail last year with him driving the support van. They have an extensive trail journal up at http://runtrails.net/. They said they would try to link to mine. She is a long distance, ultra runner who runs in 100 mile marathons. They are going down. They didn't pass the Elk Home kids because they came up a different way. They informed me that The Guillotine is about 1/2 mile farther on, and is a big rock overlying the trail. It is a beautiful day, no sign of rain and I'm wearing down and going on.14:32 42212 I am on top of Apple Orchard Mountain at 4225 feet which is topped with an oversized golfball shaped radome and at least a half a dozen satellite dishes floating around. Some small out buildings and a chain link fence. I was tempted to pull the Globalstar out but I didn't. I decided to just keep on going. I passed The Guillotine and would not have even known what it was if the two trail runners hadn't told me. It is a wedge shaped rock squeezed between the sides of a tapering vertical channel which looks dangerous but really isn't. I was far more worried about the slippery, wet boulders and zigzagging rock staircase which I had to descend to get to The Guillotine. I can see where it would be a feature that people would want to look at. I got to the shelter fairly early. It is interesting mostly because it is empty! I found and used the privy, got water from the spring, and updated the shelter trail journal. I hope the Elk Home folks are all home and safely ensconced in their beds. I need to get to rest early and leave very early as tomorrow is a very long (13.6 mi) hike for me. I used the catscoop to clean out the fireplace and then laid some rocks so as to make a protective ledge over a portion of the fireplace, where I started a fire. Having laid some flat rocks across part of the top of the stone fire ring, I had the fire in a protected little cubbyhole which could be seen from the shelter. I burned it hot so that I had a nice bed of glowing coals that actually projected some warmth into the shelter. It was pretty, but I'm not sure it was worth the several hour effort involved.19:30 42773 - Lightning and thunder, but no rain yet.20:00 - Lightning, Thunder, and rain that sounds like hail on the roof. Turned in. I was set up on the right hand side in the shelter, on the side where the fire was and I was watching the coals.20:09 - Five local hikers just showed up, and after some conversation they turned in and it mostly quieted down by 20:45. 22:00 - The coals are still glowing, although it has been thundering and lightning and pouring for for better than an hour. I hear occasional ruslings among my plastic bags, but I can't find any critter(s) when I use the light.NOTE: Since starting on the trail, my urine has definitely been yellow all the time, not mostly transparent as it has been prior to this walk.NOTE: I have been sleeping very intermittently. This is somewhat surprising given the amount of exercise I am getting. Usually I cannot easily get to sleep, (with or without the radio, but the radio often helps) before midnight and then I toss and turn and wake up every several hours. I am also usually up around dawn.The Thunder Hill Shelter is a standard 6-person design shelter with a fireplace and an uncovered picnic table. The water source is a rock encircled spring out in front of the shelter and right on the trail (and it was full of leaves that I had to remove before I could use it) with the privy on the other side of the trail.