Date: 2018-05-29
From: Grassy Ridge Rd.

To: Thomas Knob Shelter
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: overcast clouds

After two zeros in a row, I think I¢m ready to go again. I was getting a little bored and antsy wanting to get back on the trail. My feet have been acting up and I needed to get them addressed. So Sunday was the day that I bought some new shoes, Ultra¢s. These are the most popular shoes out here and they fit so we¢ll see how that goes. I wore them around town yesterday and they felt pretty good. It didn¢t rain hard enough to soak them, but it¢s coming.Woodchuck shuttled me back to the trail this morning at about 9:00am and I was off. I was looking forward to the very first shelter along today¢s route, Lost Mountain Shelter, because rumor has it that the story of the Lorax is printed on the walls of the privy, and it was! The above photo is taken in front of it. Those of you that are literary scholars know what the word ¢unless¢ means with regards to the Lorax; I include this word each time I sign one of the shelter log books. Just as I was leaving the shelter I ran in to Train Wreck with whom I hiked through and just past the Smoky¢s. It was good to see him again and we hiked together for a good part of the day.I covered about 14 miles today and as the story goes, it started to rain around 10:30 this morning while I was climbing the first of two mountains. The terrain of Whitetop Mountain was a mix of rocky, soft, really soft and wet. I passed Train Wreck sitting on a rock having a sandwich in the light rain and I continued on to the top where I was met with 40 mph winds and fog but no rain. As I summited, the landscape began to open up to a rocky bald. The trail weaved trough an old, neglected fruit orchard whose trees still bore leaves and some even had the tight buds of soon to be blossoms, but all trees were covered in layers of various colored and weathered moss/fungi indicating how long they¢d been without care. Below the fruit trees stood waist high raspberry bushes, thick and choking out anything else that might try to lay claim to the land. These plants displayed already opened blossoms of promised fruit. Finally beneath the raspberry bushes and lining the trail were varied feathered grasses and wild miniature strawberry vines hugging the ground showing off their tiny white blooms. I continued on and found shelter in a small gorge behind a rock formation and managed a bag of almonds and a protein bar before Train Wreck caught up and headed down the mountain together anticipating our next.  Mount Rogers is Virginia¢s highest peak at 5729¢. Getting there was one of my hardest climbs to date. Remember the term PUDS? This was all PU., over the course of 4 miles I climbed over the most rocks and the biggest tree roots with water flowing over them you could imagine. In many locations the foot trail lead off into the woods to circumnavigate a truly treaturous spot on the trail. Did I mention that is started to rain again? 3:00, and as of this writing at 10:00, it continues. All I can really say about my surroundings while hiking today is they were dark and wooded. It¢s hard to pay attention to what kind of trees, landscapes or views I might be passing when all a can focus on is the trail and my footing. It¢s exhausting. The top of Mount Rogers is somewhat cleared of trees, there are a few old dead pine trees, that make for interesting silhouettes against the white background of fog, some smaller bushes growing in clumps, tall grasses and a lot of rocks. Little rocks, big rocks and huge rocks. The fog was so dense there were no views to be had.I arrived at the Thomas Knob Shelter and it was packed. Two levels slept 18 and both levels were full. Train Wreck, Spoon and Renoir left me a message at the shelter that they were setting up camp 1/4 mile up the trail at an established campsite. It was still raining very hard and the last thing I wanted to do was set up my tent, get in it wet, pull my wet backpack in and then break camp in the pouring rain tomorrow morning. So I settled in for the night. It should also be noted that there has been some unusual bear activity in the area lately. I can¢t confirm the number, but I heard that a bear, maybe more than one, is responsible for taking 40 ¢properly hung¢ food bags down from trees and running off with them. As a result, Virginia Trail Club has installed three bear boxes in the area that can¢t be opened without thumbs and one of the boxes is enclosed inside an electric fence.Finally, there are supposed to be herds of wild ponies in this part of VA and there is proof of their existence everywhere, just too much fog to see, or maybe they know better than to be out in weather like this. Well there¢s lots of Virginia to go, I¢m sure I¢ll run into some sooner or later.