Date: 2006-05-28
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Pine Swamp Branch Shelter
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: broken clouds

Well, it's very foggy this morning. The fog is thick inside the loft. We left the window/door open. Beer nuts is here now too. I'm so used to leaving at the break of dawn. It's hard for me to wait around for the Johnny K club, yet, I'm looking forward to having a trail family again. I took out the trash and cleaned up a bit. Model T and his gang came in yesterday and are headed out. Eventually, we headed out for the trailhead. But I had to get a photo as Johnny K and Chuck Norris hefted their huge packs onto their backs right next to Old Spice, who's half their size and had a puny little pack. Anyways. Bill, the caretaker gave us a ride half way down the road. We looked like the gang from "Anchorman" walking the street taking up the whole road. Anyways, I was going to stop and say hi to Montreal, but the shuttle went straight to the trailhead. I was riding on the tail gate, but there was no way to jump, it was all Old Spice and I could do to hang on. I think he did fall off. Maybe it was intentional, but I was too scared to jump. Anyways. Met Kenny and Julia soon after hitting the trailhead. They passed me and were long gone. My pace was a bit faster than the Johnny K club and I was hiking alone. It was about 11:00 in the morning, I decided to call my mom. I was on a high ridge and I hadn't talked to her in a long time, I was completely lost in the conversation when I almost stepped on a rattlesnake. You can imagine my mom's thoughts as I apologized hurridly and hung us with something like this: "Sorry mom, but I gotta go, there's a rattlesnake here and he almost bit me!" The snake was poised about 5 inches in the air, right where my right foot was about to land. I stood there, one leg in the air, then retreated slowly. Right leg first of course. I got my camera out and got a great shot as it stayed exactly as I first saw it. I couldn't get a good photo of the whole snake though, so I waited. Sure enough, a hiker came by. Garret and a girl hiker showed up, and Spitball, whom I may have met before, but I didn't know his name. They played with it and got it out on the trail for photos. Then it crawled back about 5 feet from the trail, coiled up and rattled. It rattled non stop for over 5 minutes. I took videos. Every one else left, but I waited for Johnny K, Fred, and Chuck Norris. I knew they would want photos and would not notice it off the trail. They did and then we left a note for Model T and the boy scouts. We stopped at the shelter for lunch. Found where Soda Pop and B-Main had stopped for the night and left a note to catch up. I tried hiking with the Johnny K Club. They stop every hour for 10 minutes or so. I thought Montreal was behind me and would surely catch up to us. But I was surprised to find him at Pine Swamp Branch Shelter. Shasta and H-bomb were there. I had seen them at Hard Core, but didn't really meet them. It was awkward. I had a new trail family and so did Montreal. It was like seeing an ex out on a date! And we weren't that close! He's got a girlfriend in Montreal, I'm not his girlfriend. Yet, I felt like I had betrayed him somehow by hiking with these new friends. Oh, these trail dramas. Anyways, Shasta had warned us about black snakes crawling down out of the rafters of the shelter and everyone had set up tents. The shelter was empty. Well, I wasn't scared of no snakes. I plopped my bag down on one side and Johnny K set up on the on the other. It was a nice warm night, but H-bomb had a fire going and she was drying her sports bra over the fire. I went to sleep, or tried to. I laid there and the darker it got, the more I didn't like the idea of snakes crawling down out of the rafters. I got up and hung my hammock in the shelter, safe inside it's netting. Johnny K set his tent up inside too. I still had to check with my headlamp a time or two when I heard weird noises. It wasn't the most restful of nights.