Date: 2010-05-20
From: Pickle Branch Shelter

To: Catawba, Va
Miles today: 12.7

Day 74 (maybe. I think I lost track during traildays)In the middle of the night I got up to sojourn with nature and noticed that the sky was full of stars. Its been at least a week since the last time I'd seen a cloudless sky. The day ahead looked to be a beautiful one. So when dawn broke and the birds awoke with the early risers began packing their gear, I rolled over and pulled my sleeping bag tighter over my head to block out the noise. Soon I was fast asleep once more.Today and tomorrow I would hike over a section of the AT I backpacked over 2 years ago. Dragons Tooth, McAffee Knob and tinker cliffs. I was looking forward to doing it again as well as eating at The Homeplace which is the best place to ear on the whole Trail. I ate my dry ramen for breakfast and then was on my way. I had met GreenDog many times but this was the first time I actually hiked with him. Like everyone else, there is no doubt he can outhike me but he pretends to like my pace and the three of us pretty much stick together all day. Going up and down to Dragons Tooth was very rocky, especially down where there was a lot of throwing your poles down the trail and then climbing down to them using your hands to grab holds o lower yourself down. It was a lot of fun. Dragons Tooth itself was awesome. Its a big rock monolith jutting up into the sky. I climbed up onto the top and found some thrus having lunch. It made for an awesome picture that should now be in my web album. (Click the "follow my journey here" link at the bottom of this entry). I ate the last of my food, a cliff bar, and now only had a little mustard and some jolly ranchers left.At the next road crossing there was a convenience store only 0.4 miles from the trail and even though we would be going into town that night I convinced the others to go in for lunch with me. I am such a bad influence. It wasn't much of a diner but there was power to charge a battery (all of mine were now dead) and the 3 hot dogs I ate were yummy. We hitched a ride back to the trail and found ourselves once again climbing hands and feet over rocks. Thin mint and greendog were complaining about my leading abilities (I was in front) and how all I ever did was lead them over rocky trails. Greendog went around me to lead for awhile and the trail soon became a very smooth well graded gentle downhill. He took credit for the change. It seemed like the 6.6 miles to the next road crossing took forever. It didn't help that we were paralleling the highway and could hear and see the traffic the entire time. Eventually we did make it and hitched a ride to the homeplace restaurant. Outside near one of the gazebos backpacks were stacked everywhere. We dropped ours and went in immediately wearing what we had been wearing on the trail. No one seemed to care that we were dirty and stinky even though we were easily outnumbered by people in suits and nice clothes. This is family style buffet, for $13 you get 2 meats and for $14 you get 3 meats. I went hog wild and splurged on the extra dollar. They bring the food to your table in platters and keep bringing it until you beg them to stop. Fried chicken, roast beef, BBQ, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, spiced apples, apple butter, Cole slaw and peach cobbler with ice cream for dessert. Green Dog said it was one of his top 5 meals of all time. I was so stuffed that I could barely walk out of there. Thin mint had heard of people camping on the grounds so I asked the owner when we checked out and he said we could but to wait until people cleared out. They closed at 8 so that wasn't a problem. Once I could walk again I went to the general store to resupply then came back to roll out my sleeping bag in one of the gazebos on the property. I also plugged my phone into the electrical outlet on the porch and charged all my batteries. I love the homeplace and recommend it to anyone passing through Catawba, VA.Good night and sweet dreams to all of you out there not living the Dragons Tooth and Heavenly Homeplace Dream