Date: 2003-06-19
From: Rausch Gap Shelter

To: Eagles Nest Shelter
Miles today: 32.8
Weather: light rain

32.8 miles from the Rausch Gap Shelter to the Eagles Nest Shelter. I woke up very early in the morning. It was about 5:00. I started packing and stuff. I ate some cereal and got moving. The reason I got started walking at 6:15 was because I had the intention of walking all the way from Rausch Gap Shelter to Port Clinton which was a big haul. It is 41.1 miles if I can make it. It¢s just the matter of a challenge. It¢s a personal challenge to get at least one 40 mile day in. This looked to be it after I looked at the elevation profiles. They looked pretty flat and I could possibly make it. There were just a couple of climbs between the elevation marks. However, it turned out to be way harder. There were some real long flat spots for a long time where you¢re just walking perfect. It was flat and no rocks. That was about 50% of it. The other 50% of it was just these terrible ¢rock scrambles¢ is all I can call them because you¢re basically just stumbling over rocks and there was one section where there was even a little sign at a boulder field that there were rattlesnakes in the boulders. We did see a couple of them. Luckily the sun wasn¢t out because that¢s what they do. They come out and lay on the rocks to sun themselves. About 12:30 or so I pretty well realized that I was not going to make Port Clinton. I was pretty whipped and just decided to keep on walking as far as I could until evening or whatever. I had the Eagles Nest Shelter as a target and I did manage to make it there by 6:30 but it was pretty horrible in terms of the walking. It was not what I expected. Like I said¢¦50% was flat the other 50% were steep climbs. There were a lot more climbs than you could tell from the profile. A lot of steep climbs and a lot of steep ascents through boulder fields basically. Just a bunch of rocks. Then, part of the trail was sort of flat but just had rocks sticking out all over the place¢¦on their edge¢¦very difficult to avoid stepping out and turning your ankle. So by the time that I got to the Eagles Nest..I got here at 20 after 6¢¦ it was a 12 hour day and I was very, very beat up. I walked up to the shelter and heard a voice say..¢Must be S.W.I.F.T. I presume¢¢¦and it was Trog. Trog was sitting in the shelter there. I hadn¢t seen him for growing close to 3 or 4 weeks now. So, it was a pleasant thing to catch up to him and see him again. Left Step was also in the shelter along with another guy I hadn¢t seen in awhile Fly-by¢¦.who had been doing really big miles the last time I saw him. He said he had slowed down because he had gotten himself hurt. Lastly, there was another couple there. I cannot remember ¢¦the lady¢s name was Songbird and her husband¢¦I do not remember his name. I got in and took off my shoes. It¢s a complicated process anymore to put on and remove footwear. It¢s just become a ritual almost with all the other stuff you have to do to protect your feet and then dry everything out. I had also stopped on the way up to the shelter¢¦about 2/10¢s of a mile or so¢¦where the water source was and got water.   It was a little creek running across a ravine and I stopped to get water there before I got to the shelter. Then I got to cooking. I cooked some Sicilian Split Pea Soup and again mixed it with ramen noodles and another packet of olive oil. The olive oil seems to really make things taste a lot better. Mixing stuff in with ramen noodles not only adds calories but it seems to work out pretty well. Anyway, it¢s getting windy out here and the weather forecast is calling for thunderstorms tonight and flash floods. So, it¢s gonna be a wonderful day tomorrow probably. I was told by Bag O Tricks, who is a local guy, that the walk down into Port Clinton is not a good one. It has lots of rocks and the thing about the rocks in this section and Virginia is they¢re all slimy. They are covered green with¢¦I don¢t know what it is¢¦mold or lichen or something. They¢re ok to walk on when they¢re dry¢¦but when they¢re wet¢¦every single rock you step on you slide off of them. That can be a real bad thing in a boulder field. You can easily lose your balance and fall down and hurt yourself pretty badly. I have taken some pretty hard falls. I took two yesterday on the wet rocks and one in the past, in Virginia, that I remember I almost knocked myself out. Very dangerous situation. Easy to break an arm or hit your head or whatever. So, I don¢t think I¢m looking forward to walking down into Port Clinton tomorrow if it¢s going to be raining. Anyway, again, it was 32.8 miles from the Rausch Gap Shelter to the Eagles Nest Shelter.