Date: 2006-11-27
From: Near Doyles River Cabin, Va

To: Waynesboro, Va
Miles today: 25.3
Weather: overcast clouds

I heard an owl last night just before I fell asleep, then I woke up at 2am to the sounds of some coyotes yipping and howling. I woke up at 5am and had one peanut butter and jelly sandwich along with another container of peaches. I also had some Jolt Caffeine Gum. I laid back down, but I started thinking about the miles I had to do, so I went ahead and packed up in the dark and started walking about an hour before sunrise. It was a nice sunrise, but there wasn't any clouds in the distance to add to the morning's beauty. When it did get light out, I could see that on the shady side of the mountains, there was still plenty of thick ice around. I was walking along about 5 miles into the morning and I saw a nice buck looking at me. He was about 50 yards away when he took off running, so I don't know how many points he had, but it was a nice, big rack. My heel was OK for about 6 or 7 miles, then it started hurting me again. There was an area that wasn't too bad with tree damage, so I tried walking the Trail again. It wasn't too bad for about a mile, then all the trees and limbs made it too hard to walk there anymore. I saw four deer just before I got back out to the road. They just stood there and looked at me walking by. I got to within 10 feet of the closest one and they never did run off. There was another section where there didn't seem to be as many downed trees, so I tried walking the Trail again, but once again, after about a mile, it got bad again. I had another park ranger stop to talk to me. He said he saw me yesterday. He must have been one of only three vehicles that passed by me all day and they were all three ranger vehicles. We talked for a while, then I walked on. I got to the Visitor's Center at Rockfish Gap and was planning on just spending the night at Inn At Afton, but I called and the restaurant wasn't opening again until Friday. The lady in the Visitor's Center called Krispy, one of the local Trail Angels and she came and picked me up within about 10 minutes, then took me to the Quality Inn. Thanks Krispy!!! Nice talking to you too. :-))) My heel was sore again, so I laid on the bed for half an hour before I got up and took a shower and washed my clothes in the tub. I called Hokey Pokey and made arrangements to hike with him next Saturday and Sunday from the James River Bridge, south to as far as we can get. He said he'd meet me there Saturday at 9am. I then called another local Trail Angel by the name of Tom Brown who agreed to pick me up at the motel at 9am and drop me off up at Rockfish Gap. I called Lois at Dutch Haus B&B just to confirm that they really were closed for a couple months. That's a great place to stay at along the Trail. She's closed, but still invited me over. I thanked her and told her that I wouldn't interrupt her time off, but it was good talking to her. She already new about me breaking my arm earlier this year. :-))) I ordered a pizza and some chicken wings to be delivered to my room and had a nice, quiet evening stuffing my face. :-))) I see that the ice storm hit hard for another 75 miles south of me, so I'm not sure what to expect. I understand they closed the Blue Ridge Parkway for that section. Guess I'll find out in the morning. :-))) Oh yeah, I believe I became a 2,000 miler today. :-)))