Date: 2006-04-11
From: Carvers Gap

To: Apple House Shelter
Miles today: 13.2

4-11-06Carvers Gap to Apple House Shelter13.2 miles        Woo hoo folks!!! It has been one month on the trail and I am still going strong!        This was our last morning at Ms. Janet¢s house, and how sad that is. Shanae and I helped out with breakfast and laundry this morning because we felt like we didn¢t do enough yesterday for our work for stay. Ms. Janet was busy making cinnamon rolls and an asparagus, green onion, baby spinach, mixed cheese, and ham frittata (basically a giant layered stack of eggs and other ingredients). It¢s no wonder with this kind of food that people end up staying here for awhile.        With my hypothetical belt loosened after that feast, I walked some of it of by stopping at the post office to mail some letters and send a package ahead. Ms. Janet rounded us together (she always says trying to get hikers together to leave is like trying to herd cats) and took Da Bear, Shanae, and I to Carvers Gap to begin our trek to Damascus, VA. No more slackpacking for us; it was back to the real thing, with our bigger, now much heavier, food-laden packs. And to make matters worse, we were starting off with a climb.        But to our pleasant surprise, the weather was delightful, and we climbed bald after bald, which gave us many fantastic views of the wonderful landscape. We stopped at Stan Murray Shelter, but it wasn¢t very impressive, so we moved onto Overmountain shelter. This was a highly acclaimed shelter, and rightly so, what with it being a huge red barn that had been converted to a shelter and located on the side of a mountain with a great view of the east (for sunrises). We had our lunch there and just laid around in the grass for a bit with the sun beating down upon us.        There were two more big climbs to do before our big descent to the shelter we were staying at tonight. The top of the second had such a great view that Shanae and I rested there for awhile, sheltering ourselves from the wind behind some rocks. We had run into Switchback on the way up; apparently he was camping there that night. We considered staying there to watch the sunset, but didn¢t really care for a five mile descent in the dark to the next shelter. Then Da Bear came and joined us for a few minutes, and then we all left.        It was a nice easy descent for the first two and a half miles, but the wind was blowing pretty well, chilling us sometimes. The rocks started kicking in, which made for some rough going, but we got to watch the sun setting, filtering its red glow through the tries and landing softly upon us. The full moon was out, but it was still dark, and as we slowed down due to the darkness Da Bear caught up with us for the last bit. Shanae fell and was okay, but put on her headlamp after that. Even with it on she still keep running into the spider webs that were strewn across the trail.        We followed a stream for awhile before bending away and getting to the Apple House Shelter. No one else was there, so we spread out and made ourselves at home. Dinner for me was salmon, rice, and refried bean stew, which I added some garlic powder and pepper to. MMMMmmmm mmmm good. We planned out our next few days, which were going to be somewhat big, so that we can make it to Damascus by Saturday, just in time to take a zero day on Easter Sunday. I¢m looking forward to that bunch.