Date: 2006-10-05
From: Pine Swamp Branch Shelter

To: Pearisburg, VA (Holy Family Church Hostel)
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: few clouds

Day 126 (Thursday)Up @ 7:30 am to find 2 deer outside the shelter (stone shelter, btw). Breakfast double ration muesli. On trail 9:15am. Clumbed onto ridge & passed the southern Terminus of the Allegheny Trail. Met T-Man @ 10:45 & had to tell him he had been hiking all morning in the wrong direction. After assuring him that I wasn't joking & referencing the landmarks on the map, I convinced him I was going south & he had been going north. He was embattassed & figured he must have started walking the wrong way when he got up that morning. I asked if he had enough water to make it to the next shelter & he said he did, so I wished him well & hiked on. Passed some open meadows @ Symms gap, where there is supposed to be water 0.3 mi from the trail, but I didn't check. Left a message for Tentpole re: T-man to pack some extra water up the ridge if he could, which he probably didn't get due to lack of cell coverage between Bailey Gap & Pine Swamp shelters. Considered calling the forest service to keep an eye out for T man but decided to leave my 20 oz aquafina bottle on the trail for him w/ a note. (I figured since he hadn't had access to water since the afternoon prior, there was little chance he was actually adequately hydrated & was a bit concerned by his lack of orientation (wrong direction, wrong date signed @ Pine Swamp & he initially said he stayed @ Pine Swamp last night when he obvious;y hadn't). I figured between my water & Jack & Tentpole 4 mi behind, he couldn't get into too much trouble. Hiked on to Rice Field Shelter, arriving @ 3pm & spent about 45 min reading the register. Hiked into town from there. Easy descent, but I missed the trail @ the 1st road crossing & hiked about 150 yards out of my way @ rt 460. I considered hitching into town from there, but decided against it. It started to rain as soon as I got back in the woods. Hiked across the New River on Rt 460 (on the AT) & briefly tried hitching there before hiking another 1/2 mile to Lane St in Pearisburg, where I walked into town. Passed Hardees & got a craving for it, but had been looking for AYCE pizza all day. Went back to Hardees after finding out there was no AYCE piza in town exc. for lunch. Walked in & found nobody working the registers. The drive thru guy wandered over in my direction. I said, "Hi, welcome to Hardee's. Can I help you?" & He responded by saying how busy they had been that day. I asked if I could order some fod & he stared at me blankly. The manager walked up front & was heading back to the kitchen when I interrupted her & asked if I could place an order. Ordered a large thickburger combo & extra jalapeno thickburger. Realized as soon as it was rung up that it would have been cheaper as a jalapeno combo with an extra thickburgerr, but the manager refused to adjust the price, saying iy would "mess up" all of her credit card receipts. Ate dinner & left a comment card recounting my experience & walked over to the laundromat & did laundry while catching up on world events in US News. Almost finished @ 9pm when the laundromat officially closed, but the couple who came in to clean up let me finish drying my socks. Tried to yogi a ride off them to the hostel, but they couldn't b/c their van was full of paint, were apologetic & pointed me in the right direction. (Missed 1 sock in my haste, btw). Walked back to Business 460 & immediately caught a hitch from the only car on the street& a very nice woman drove me to the hostel. After spending a few minutes looking for the place, we found it & I settled in, took a shower, read the masterplan for the protection of the AT (1982) & The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (after whom my 1st public school was named). In bed 12am.P.S. Noticed in the register that Lucky Dime & Sue stayed there 2x (non-consecutively).