Date: 2006-10-23
From: chestnut knob shelter

To: jenkins shelter
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: overcast clouds

======2003====== friday, april 11, day 49(a.m.)well....we¢re still breathin¢!...ha ha!...not frozen!.....the snow overnight ended up bein¢ only a trace.....and there doesn¢t seem to be quite as much wind......but my shoes are still really wet.....(i had to put them on to go out to the privy).....got my first surprise of the morning there when i discovered the privy floor was covered in ICE!...very ¢treacherous¢! (at least the seat wasn¢t frozen!....remember that scene from ¢the christmas story¢ where that kid sticks his TONGUE to a frozen pipe?....wellllllllll....)anyway....we look forward to DEscending this a.m.......(i wonder if the valley will be flooded)....but i¢m NOT looking forward to getting into these damp, cold clothes....oh well....there¢s no time like the present...let¢s see what¢s in the food bag...(p.m.)well, this 11 miles today for some reason was hard....there was no more rain, but it was foggy most of the day.....killeen didn¢t feel well....i think we both got a little dehydrated yesterday.....we hadn¢t had a good breakfast and didn't eat lunch except to snack a little along the way...and on top of feeling the effects of yesterday¢s less-than-perfect hike, i think i felt like today i might be gettin¢ a bladder infection....(i¢ve GOT to do a better job of drinking water!)...i dunno...i was just ¢draggy¢ today....anyway....we were both in a sort of ¢mood¢, i guess.....killeen asked me this a.m. if i thought it would be too much to ask for some blue sky today....well....we DID ask!...and guess what!....by this afternoon we had a few minutes (just before gettin¢ to the shelter) of a tiny bit of good ol¢ sunshine and some cheery blue sky!....just what the ¢doctor¢ ordered!.....pepper was here earlier, but he packed up to head on out....he wanted to camp...he¢ll be out in only a bivy, however, so i hope the weather will hold for him.....these are beautiful, level woods here.....lots of serviceberry in bloom!....we¢ve got our wet things drying all over the place (we had to ¢squish¢ them to one corner a bit, though, when 3 more hikers came in.... 'braveheart¢ from new zealand, ¢miles-to-go¢ and ¢malcovitch¢).....but we¢re warm and comfy and are enjoying the company of these three, who have built a fire to try and dry out their gear, too....we¢re snuggled under our blanket already, though, our little corner replete with the comforting sound of killeen¢s soft snoring (at 6:30!)......our lasagna sure did taste mighty good tonight!......we¢re a little behind ¢schedule¢ because of the weather....we¢re gonna try to push on tomorrow (or else we¢ll run out of food!)...there¢s a grocery day after tomorrow, however, with camping, so i think we¢ll be okay....shelters are alright (when the weather forces you to take advantage of them)....but they¢re not really our pick....it¢s hard to get up and out early and quickly in the a.m. without disturbing the others (though no one ever seems to mind......we¢re all pretty much used to sleepin¢ with a ¢crowd¢ now)....this shelter is nice enough....i¢m not so fond of the ¢register shelf¢ attached to the center post here, though....(i bet i¢m not the only hiker who¢s ever cracked her head on the corner of that thing!...ouch!)...the coolest thing about this place is the famous privy!*....it¢s all painted up in psychedelic colors with the words ¢feed me¢ right above the toilet!....good grief!..i can¢t believe i actually ¢posed¢ for a picture here, but yes!...paw-ee did take a picture of me ¢feeding¢ this lovely little ¢john¢!...(oh the depths to which we¢ve fallen!...ha ha!).....there¢s no register here, however (even though there is a very SECURE shelf...ouch...to hold a register if there was one!).....so i¢m not able to sketch a cartoon or leave a ¢cheer¢ or a poem or any other such ¢tucker wisdom¢....it was nice to hear that the other hikers had enjoyed our entries...======2006====== saturday, april 1, day 49 (supposed to have been 7.6 miles from pearisburg to a campsite up on the ridge...turned out to be more like 10...you¢ll see why...)we went ahead and set our watches forward for daylight savings time last night, so this morning when i thought i was calling mom and dad at 9:30, it was really 8:30....but this also made for the good fortune of catching carli at home, too!...i was soooo glad i got to talk to her!....she always cheers me up!...really made me feel like hiking!....though my ¢spirit was willin¢ ¢, however, (as i headed out), my ¢flesh was weak¢....i was a bit head-ache-y...(a once-a-month symptom)....i also got a little down when i realized we didn¢t have the cash to leave a tip in the room at the motel....we tried to leave it as much like we found it as possible, but i would have loved to have been able to show our appreciation with a little something left on the pillow....maybe i can send something when i get back home.....we were heavy, too, hiking out this a.m. (resupply always is!)....but isaiah 40:30ish cheered and helped me : ¢they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength!¢...it has been VERY warm today....and we climbed 1700 ft from new river in pearisburg....so it was pretty hard and slow at first...we met some local hikers, though, and their dog.........mike (a trail angel and photographer extraordinaire) was out with 3 ladies for a springtime jaunt over the mountain....mike has done lots of ¢magic¢ for hikers.... he once hosted a cookout with burgers and dogs for about 30 hungry hikers!....he told us that they hike every weekend (except in summer)....he works at the plant in pearisburg....says there are 55 miles of AT in this county, but probably only about 20 or so regular hikers...(what a shame!)....he thinks it¢s mostly hunters who get out on the trails around here..... i guess i could picture that....seems like several of the folks we¢ve briefly met in pearisburg could¢ve been into ¢guns¢....(not a criticism...just an observation )....i myself have ¢small town¢ roots and can easily recognize the culturally straightforward lifestyle of rural america....whether ¢religion¢, or ¢guns-and-beer¢, country folks often ¢wear their culture on their sleeve¢....they are delightfully honest with who they are....(whether it lands them in church or in prison!)...they¢re not afraid to be ¢connected¢ to the folks in their community...sharing their lives with others, whether around camp butchering a buck, or at midweek prayer meetin¢ singing hymns!....it's just part of who they are!..... i wish i was MORE like that!....like the hospitable miss brenda at the motel, for instance (or bill gautier at the hostel)....both have very ¢flowery¢ language...(flowery like sailors!...ha ha!)....but it¢s HONEST talk!....they don¢t hold back!....brenda kept us entertained with her wonderful mile-a-minute conversation...(and PLENTY of expletives!)....her speech was peppered with flavorful colloquialisms such as the following (which she used to describe a family member who was in trouble with the law) : ¢if that guy even pisses a poppy seed sideways, they¢ll haul his ass in!)....can ANYONE help but laugh at such poetic expression as this?!!!...i love brenda!....and bill gautier....and mike and all the others who made pearisburg seem like home!....and i loved bein¢ a part of their lives for a brief period of mine....anyway...we talked to mike awhile at the rice field shelter .....and then we headed on.....but we PASSED our campsite (which had a spring!), thinking we¢d make it to symm¢s meadow which we THOUGHT we remembered having a pond......but we got nervous about the water situation about halfway to symm¢s (thinkin¢ it might be a cow pond) and so we did something i don¢t think we¢ve ever done...we turned around and came back!....but it¢s nice here in these flat woods up here on this ridge....and we¢ve had plenty of water from this little spring (WAY better than hiking DOWN half a mile at rice field, or drinking ¢cow poop¢ at symm¢s!)....so....i think our mistake turned out in our favor, and probably only added 1 12 - 2 miles to our day...it¢s still nice and warm this evenin¢ and it¢s strange to not be doing the whole ¢layers and layers of clothing¢ routine....i HOPE i¢ve got enough on for comfortable sleeping tonight....guess i can always add a layer if necessary....i¢m lookin¢ forward to sleepin¢ in this wonderfully fresh mountain air!...i haven¢t really slept all that great the last two nights....guess i just kind of felt ¢suffocated¢ in that motel room....we were talkin¢ tonite, tryin¢ to decide whether we liked the motel or the hostel better....there are pros and cons on both....we liked the ¢setting¢ at the hostel, but the privacy and the phone was a plus at the motel....i think the hostel was more relaxing in many ways and you could walk easily to eat or shop....both hosts are great....i must remember to pray for these generous people....well...as usual, paw is already snoring...so i guess it¢s time for me to lay down, too....read in isaiah about the ¢glory of zion¢!....oh yes....forgot to mention, we were able to get showers tonight before supper for the first time in a long time!....oooooh!*NOTES/OBSERVATIONS/COMPARISONS------*shelters okay, but not really our pick......we got to where we didn¢t mind the shelters (it was probably one of the things i had the most anxiety about).....we especiaaly enjoyed getting to hang out with and meet other hikers....but for a really COMFORTABLE night¢s sleep, we preferred the ground under our tarp in some nice soft woods!*jenkins' shelter famous privy....alas!....this wonderful privy is no longer being "fed" here....when we passed through last year ('06), we mourned it's demise (as it had been replaced by a new mouldering privy!)....so much for the "art" in the woods!