Date: 2006-12-03
From: Hokey Pokey's Home - Parkers Gap Rd, Va (on Trail)

To: Hokey Pokey's Home/Mill's Gap, Va (on the Trail)
Miles today: 19.6

I slept good at Hokey Pokey's home last night. He has a waterbed upstairs and I slept on that.I woke up and put on a pot of Starbuck's to take along with me while I drove out to the trailhead on the Blueridge Parkway this morning. Hokey Pokey said he was going to rest today and would pick me up later when I was done walking.Hokey Pokey had bought some frozen breakfast pancakes with sausage, so I microwaved one of those and was surprised that it tasted pretty good.I got my stuff together and headed out to the Trail.It was 29 degrees and overcast when I started walking south at 8:20am.I walked by the side trail to Cornelius Creek Shelter without stopping.I climbed about 500 feet to the summit of Floyd Mountain, then started a long, 4.5 mile, 2,500 foot descent to Bryant Ridge Shelter.I was surprised to see quite a bit of ice damage in the first 6 miles south of Apple Orchard Mountaion. It was not nearly as bad as Shenandoah was, but there were a large number of trees and branches down.I stopped at Bryant Ridge Shelter to sign the register. There was a tin box there with some loose notebook paper, so I didn't bother, I just walked on.It couldn't have been much nicer for walking today. The temperature stayed in the mid 30's and the wind was 10 mph or less.I climbed 800 feet to the summit of Fork Mountain, then headed right back down 1,000 feet to Jennings Creek.My legs were feeling really good, but I was feeling the knee I banged up on that fall I took in Maryland a few weeks ago.I climbed 1,100 feet up to a ridge and after about 2 miles of walking along that ridge, I passed by Cove Mountain Shelter without stopping.I could look over at the shelter and the privy, but I stayed on the Trail which made a half circle walking around them.I had been walking through leaves on the Trail for about 10 miles. The leaves would come up to my shins at times, but mostly just covered my shoes. They were very dry and crunched as I walked through them.I would get to an area where the leaves had been wind blown off the Trail and I would enjoy walking quietly, but that never lasted long and I'd be right back walking in deep crunchy leaves again.Walking in leaves like that also made some of the side hill trails dangerous, especially when the Trail sloped off down the mountain. I had to walk slowly through those areas because I was slipping on top of the leaves and didn't want to slide down the mountain. :-)))I climbed another 700 feet up to the summit of Cove Mountain. That was a well graded climb and kind of reminded me of walking the easy grades on the John Muir Trail.I walked down to Bearwallow Gap, crossed the road and started climbing a small mountain.I was walking along slowly because I told Hokey Pokey I'd be at the trailhead between 4 and 5pm and I was early.I looked up when I was about half a mile from Mills Gap and saw Hokey Pokey walking north on the Trail.I was glad to see him because I didn't want to sit at the trailhead in the cold weather and wait...I would have gotten cold if I wasn't walking because it was still only 36 degrees.Hokey Pokey said that he had worked up an appetite with that half mile climb he did. :-))) We headed to the country buffet at Peaks Of Otter Lodge, but they were just pulling the buffet down when we walked in at 4pm. They said they weren't busy enough to keep it going today.We left and went to the trailhead where I parked my truck at this morning, then headed back into Roanoke and stopped at a Ruby Tuesday's for dinner.That was the first time I ever ate at Ruby Tuesday's. I had a cheesburger and fries along with the salad bar and it was pretty good. (OK Queen Diva, this counts as Trail food, right??) ;-)))Hokey Pokey had the same thing because he walked so far today. ;-)))We headed back to his house afterwards. My plan is to take a zero tomorrow because I only have 40 miles left and 4 days to finish. That will be a zero, a 20, another zero, then the last 20 miler to finish up this walk on December 7th...Thursday, December 7th, the first day of the week that The Homeplace opens for business. :-)))My knee bothered me today, but I worked it pretty hard on the long downhill yesterday when I was walking along pretty fast. Hopefully it will feel better after a zero tomorrow.I didn't see another person on the Trail all day until Hokey Pokey came walking up. The largest animal I saw all day was a squirrel...probably because of all the noise I was making walking through the leaves.I'll take these kinds of temperatures to walk in anytime...it was an absolutely beautiful day. :-)))Oh yeah, I uploaded about 25 more photos and added some to the last week's worth of journal entries.