Date: 2006-12-01
From: Saltlog Gap, Va.

To: Glasgow, Va
Miles today: 7.4
Weather: light rain

It's December!!! I slept really well last night even with a few squalls blowing through and high winds most of the night. It was windy and dark when I set up my tent last night, so I set it up where the wind didn't blow through the tent. I woke up early again and had four half peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. :-))) ...that would be two whole sandwiches, but I only ate half of one at a time. Ha!! I also had a Sparkle Caffeine Drink. I could get to liking those things...at least the orange flavored ones. I packed up and another squall blew through, so I just sat in my tent in the dark until it passed. When it stopped raining, I got out and packed up a wet tent. It was so foggy out and still pitch dark out, that with my headlamp on, I could only see a few feet in front of me. Lucky for me, I remembered which way I walked off the Trail last night to find my tentsite. I walked back in the same direction and I found the Trail in about a minute. I couldn't believe how little I could see. My headlamp just lit up the fog in front of me. I had to keep it pointed to the ground just to see the Trail. The Trail soon began to follow a side hill and that was easier, but I was still having to watch closely where I was stepping because I had no idea how steep a fall it would be with a mis-placed foot step....and I sure didn't need another fall this year. :-))) It started getting just light enough out in about 40 minutes, that I could see better with my headlamp turned off. I climbed about 400 feet to Big Rocky Row, and then had to be extra careful on the wet rocks and the steep descent around Fuller's Rocks. Once I got down a little farther, I got out of the thick fog and it became easier to walk. I passed by the side trail to Johns Hollow Shelter without stopping. I walked along Rocky Row Run for a while. I tried looking for trout in the stream, but didn't see any. A sign on a tree said that this area was stocked with trout. I got to Rt 501 and started hitching a ride into Glasgow. I realized that it's been a while since I hitched a ride. It was raining lightly, then would stop for a while, and then start again. I kept trying to get a ride, but no one was stopping...and I was trying my best to look cute. ;-))) It started raining hard and I started saying bad things to each car after it passed by without stopping...especially the trucks that I could have jumped in the back. That made me feel better anyway. Ha!! :-))) A guy finally stopped after I had been out there for 40 minutes and he dropped me off right at the Tired Feet Cafe. I thanked him for the ride and went inside and ordered up some hot coffee, a mushroom and cheese omelet, home fries, toast and sausage. I was talking to a couple older guys in the booth next to me and I asked if the guy in the white truck that gives rides to hikers still comes in. Henry said that he does and he also said he's known Spencer for 61 years...they are brothers. :-))) I paid my bill and got a room at the motel they run in the back of the restaurant. There's no phone in the rooms, so I walked next door to a closed down convenience store and used the pay phone there to check my email and send in a couple journal entries. I went back to the restaurant and ate some shrimp, cod, fries and cole slaw for lunch...with more coffee!! It was time for me to take a shower and wash my clothes, so I went back to my room, spread out my hiking stuff to dry and got in the shower and washed me and my clothes. We all smell better now. :-))) I layed around the room all afternoon with stuff hanging everywhere drying. It felt good to be lazy today. :-))) I went back and checked email about dark, then went back to the restaurant and had a Philly cheese steak, fries and a vanilla milkshake. I went back to my room and resumed being lazy for the rest of the night. :-)))