Date: 2006-04-22
From: Moreland Gap shelter

To: Dennis Cove Rd
Miles today: 6.1

We had another round of thunderstorms roll in around 2am last night. I heard the thunder, and got up to lower the tarp close to the ground. The wind had picked up considerably, but staking the tarp close to the ground gave us great protection. I was thinking that we were going to have a huge storm, but it must have slid a little south of us, and we just got a lot of wind and rain. During the storm, we heard a big tree crash to the ground a hundred or so yards away. Yikes - didn't think about that happening.Today we had a short day of hiking planned as we were meeting our friend Mary Helm. Mary was driving up from Lafayette to meet us and hike for a few days. This has definitely been visitor¢s week!We visited the Kincora hostel, but decided to stay at Laurel Fork hostel since we could get a small cabin for the three of us. At Kincora, we met Stumpnocker. Stumpnocker is another "trail legend". He has hiked the AT a number of times and is currently hiking the AT, plus the portion in Canada. We found out that he had hiked the John Muir trail during the same time period that we hiked it in '04. It was fun sharing stories with him. He also told me that he types on his Pocketmail with his thumbs. I had asked him because my arms get so tired typing in the tent. Might have to try that sometime. Bob Peoples, owner of the Kincora hostel came in and we had fun talking with him. There are some people that you can just feel goodness flowing out of them. Bob is one of those people.Bob gave us a ride over to Laurel Fork, and soon Mary arrived. It was hugs and happiness for her and Coyotebec (and me . After the little reunion, it was time for business, as we had to get Mary's car shuttled to Damscus, get groceries for our hike and get supper. We had set up a shuttle run with a guy named Seiko. What I didn't know is that Seiko is a "Super Legend" of the trail. He's done the AT 14 times and was the 3rd person to ever hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail. He did this in 1972. Seiko has logged over 35,000 trail miles. He entertained us with lots of hiking stories on our 1.5 hour shuttle ride - a real treat.I decided to ask him if he had hiked in 1989. He did, so I asked him if he remembered a couple hiking with a child and a baby jogger. He did remember and could even remember the shelter that he had met us at. It was fun remembering trail names that we both knew from '89.   Seiko is now retired, but far from idle. He's got a bunch of projects and jobs that keep him busy - until he decides its time to go hiking. This year he hopes to go southbound - so maybe we'll see him again.One of the "funny" things that happened today was also on the shuttle. On the way to Damascus, we were bringing Krush with us. About 10 minutes into the ride he started feeling sick. Since I was following Seiko down the highway, I couldn't stop. He held it down for about 20 minutes. Then I heard a gasp, and a windo roll down. When I looked in my rearview mirror, I can see Krush with half his body out the window - spewing his soft tacos down the highway.   We've decided that his new trail name is Hurley.After returning from the shuttle, we repackaged food, and Coyotebec and Mary went to have some girl time while it did my journaling duties.More tomorrow...