Date: 2009-07-03
From: Hightop Shelter

To: Fishers Gap
Miles today: 22.0

Although I woke up in the early morning ¢ maybe around 6:30 ¢ I really didn¢t get out of the shelter until 8:55. My legs were still hurting and I was just very tired, as I didn¢t sleep too well. Between you and me, these shelters really suck. The floor is so hard that when you roll over on your side, you can literally feel your hip bone jabbing into the base of the flooring. It is largely uncomfortable. When I finally started hiking, I stopped to talk to a father and a daughter (Amy) who were out for just a few days on the trail. They had just done 13 miles the day before and the father said that his legs were just killing him. He explained that he was a professional golfer from South Florida and that he has even tried out for pro baseball teams, but that this Appalachian Trail section hike was the hardest thing he has ever done. His daughter has been hooked on the AT, after reading ¢Walk in the Woods¢ and hopes to do a full thru-hike one day. Go get ¢em, Tiger!!!My intention was to hike as far as I could go today as fast as I could go. Kathy and my cousins would be down around 5ish and I wanted to get a good distance in. It was a rather uneventful day, but I did see a small snake descending right before I hit US 33, which leads to Elkton, VA. Just after the US 33 crossing, I passed the 900 mile marker! Can you believe it? I¢ve hiked 900 miles¢¦unbelievable. Later on in the day, I stopped at the Lewis Mountain Campgrounds, where I sat down and ate some sardines out of a can and finished up eating some tuna salad toppings. It really wasn¢t that great, but it was high in protein!! I saw Jungli and Patch several times during the day and Patch and I even hiked for 30 minutes together, chatting and getting to know each other on the way. He was from Cheshire, MA in the Berkshires and had been attending a SUNY college and was in his last year, but decided that he did not want to do computer science as his major and chose to have a leave of absence. He¢s on the AT to find out more about his interests and, maybe, to figure out in which direction he wishes to go. He¢s a good guy and I enjoyed spending some time with him. I didn¢t stop for long at the campgrounds, as I had to keep flying. But, just as I exited and returned to the trail, there was a doe and a buck directly in front of me on the trail. I just stopped and slowly approached with 15 feet. I couldn¢t believe how close they were letting me get to them. They were both munching on an assortment of leaves and so I just stood there and waited until they slowly walked off to the side. The buck had started to grow rather large antlers ¢ maybe 10 inches in length already. Someone had told me once that these antlers can sometimes grow one inch per day when they are maturing. I just passed by them and kept plodding along. At one point, I met a very friendly couple from Amissville, who were out in the Shennies merely giving trail magic to thru-hikers. They explained that they do this every year. So, they gave me a hard-boiled egg, a banana, and some cheese crackers. I was already stuffed from the sardines, tuna, and other food items that I munched down in the park, but I was happy to receive trail magic from them, nevertheless. I made it to Big Meadows Campground at 5 pm and, as I knew via texting that Kathy and the kids were close, I got off the trail and headed up to the campground, foregoing my original destination of Fishers Gap. Tons of families were already set up for the 4th of July with American flags hanging outside of their tents. It was an amazing site, really. I asked a family how far it was to Skyline Drive and one man responded, ¢About a mile.¢ I tried calling Kathy, but the connection just was not going through, so I had to run back into the woods in order to get a signal. I did finally reach her and they said that they were still about 45 minutes away, as they were only allowed to drive 30 minutes. They were awestruck at the sheer beauty of the Shennies and were stopping several times along the way at the various overlook points. We decided that I would keep pushing on to Fishers Gap. As I ran back to pick up my backpack in the campground, one of the men from the family who was grilling out that I had asked about the distance to Skyline Drive earlier (wow, that was a long transition) shouted to me, ¢Heyyy!!! You hungry!¢ I told them that I really had to get going to meet up with my family, but they persisted, ¢Get up here and get something to eat!¢ Once I arrived, this family of 10 had tons of food laid out on two different tables ¢ hot dogs, hamburgers, sausages, corn on the cob, chips, salsa, shrimp, chicken¢¦the list goes on. The father said, ¢Have anything you¢d like.¢ I still had to hike another 1.6 miles, so I opted just to chow down a small hot dog and be on my way. They proceeded to ask me from where I had come and to where I was going and when I told them that I started from Georgia, they nearly fell off the seat. ¢Yeah, I just hit 900 miles today.¢ ¢Whattttt!!! That¢s impossible! I get tired riding a horse for five miles!¢ I explained that I had been hiking since April 12 and that I would hope to finish by the end of September or early October. They were very impressed by it all and proceeded to ask questions about what I eat, how far do I go in a day, and whether or not I carry a tent. After some conversation, I knew that I had to get going, so I thanked them wholeheartedly for their hospitality and then went around to each mother, father, daughter, and son and shook their hands and wished each of them a Happy 4th and Happy Independence Day. It was just an awesome experience. On the way back to the trail, I passed a burly set man, whom I had passed a mile or so back. He was sweating profusely and, in passing, I just wished him a Happy 4th. He quickly asked me where I was going and I told him, ¢a long way¢¦actually I¢m going to Maine.¢ ¢What?!!? You are going to Maine using that backpack!? That has got to be the lightest darn thing I have ever seen!¢ I explained to him that I try to go as light as possible and that by going light, I can actually go further and faster and with less trauma on my body. He wished me well and I was off on my merry way. Then, I arrived to an overlook, which had the same elevation as Fishers Gap and it appeared to me to be the same distance, but yet I thought that I was supposed to CROSS Skyline Drive, which didn¢t happen. I stumbled around for a few moments and then hiked up to the parking lot, looking for Kathy and Michael¢s white van. I couldn¢t find it, so I turned around and started heading back to the road. Just as I did this, their white van pulled on up and it was one of those surreal moments, ¢Holy crap! It¢s them!¢ We all just looked at each other in complete amazement at how easy it was to locate one another, and then I proceeded to run up, shedding a few tears in the process, and give all of them giant hugs. They were all family to me and I had thought about them often while out on the trail, especially Katie and Alex Hutch. Man, it was great to see them again. We chatted for a short while, took some pictures of the reunion, and then packed up and headed in the direction out of the park. On the way, we saw a large male bear just at the side of the road and a small baby bear that kept throwing rocks down the embankment and towards the road. I sat in the back with Booker (Alex), put my arm around him, and sat back to relax and enjoy the ride. On the way to Ruth¢s, Katie, Alex and I made some crazy videos with my camera, as we have always done in the past. The vids were quite hysterical and they will be a good for memory sake when I return to the trail on Sunday. We arrived at Ruth and Tom¢s a bit late, but still had time to grub down some quality homemade food. I was also able to meet their three children: Alessandro, Matthew, and Adele. Great kids. I hadn¢t seen Ruth and Tom for maybe eight years, so it was nice to be back in their presence again.