Date: 2007-06-20
From: Harrison Ground Spring VA

To: Johns Hollow Shellter VA
Miles today: 13.7
Weather: few clouds

Well last nite, I went to sleep @ 9:30 p.m. I woke up, thinking hours had passed, but I looked @ my watch and it was only 10:30 p.m.! What woke me was this almost constant flickering of light. I first thought it was the campfire that Tennis made, but soon realized it was freakin lightning! GREAT!! Then I heard thunder, so I got up and re-pitched my tarp for "storm mode", which I must say I've gotten more than my fair share of practice @ lately.I pulled everythig off my hammock suspension lines (for drying) and threw my metal hiking poes flat on the ground about 30 ft from me. Then it was waiting.Seriousy, the sky was almost lit up constantly. Lots of electrical energy in those clouds. I really hope I can enjoy storms again someday soon instead of feeling like lightning is going to strike me @ any moment.It was a pretty wicked storm, and I was SO glad I hiked that last 2.5 miles DOWN the mountain. I was actually in this great location where almost all the wind was blocked, and the rain wasn't blowing. I was up till after midnite, and eventually the thunder\lightning stopped and the rain came down so incredibly hard. Stayed dry as a bone though.I finally drifted off to sleep again to wake to 66 degrees @ 6:00 a.m. Today was a pretty cool day.I was hiking by 8:00 a.m. and first thing I run into a hiker named Ironwill. Very nice man who is writing a book about hiking the southern AT (he's going to Harper's Ferry only). He followed me up the one major climb of the day, High Cock Knob. So today was the firt time I didn't have a guy pass me going uphill. Not sure how much of a milestone it is though, because he's 66 years old! LOL Hey, I'll take what I can get ok people?Most of today was downhill, and on just enough of a steep gradient, that you have to fight the momentum of going down, which is a lot of work. It really seemed to irritate my foot, and the trail was littered with small rocks, so you constantly had to monittor where you stepped to prevent turning an ankle.I stopped fpr water @ Big Cove Branch, and also ate lunch. Ironwill and eventually Redwood showed up. I found out Redwood is a commercial scuba diver who cleans the bottoms of big ships ad inspects the props and stuff. He's probably my age, maybe younger, but I just really like his eneergy. He's so laid back.They were headed to Glasco, and were meeting someone @ the road @ 2:30, so they both moved on. I sat there a bit, and when I went to get water, I looked down and saw the world's smallest crawdad! It was amazing! I managed to scoop it up in my hand, and got this incredible picture of it cupped in my hand. It was like 1\2 " long. I put it back into the water and watched it disappear. It probably thought it was having an out of body experience or something.So more down and down, and it was really starting to warm up. I hiked past Matt's Creek Shelter where I met Bill and John, 2 young guys trying to find their buddies ad hike with them for a few weeks.The trail followed Matt's Creek for miles, and I kept seeing these great little pools that would be perfect for taking a dip...so guess what...I finally couldn't resist!This was nowhere near the shelter, but was closer to the James River. It was this great little spot with a small pebbly "beach", there was a small waterfall\rapid and the bottom was all big smooth rocks. I took off my pack, changed into my other shorts, put on my ONE campshoe (LOL) and slowly crawled in. OOOOOHHHHH YYYEEAAAHHHH! Did the water feel fantastic! As I sat there, all of these tiny fish came up and were biting on my legs and feet. I've got pics of that too. Water is an amazing thing..it keeps your body hydrated, and it can make you feel so refreshed just by sitting in it for 15 minutes! I even cupped it over my hair nd got my head cooled off. Granted, today was about 10 degrees cooler than yesterday, but it was still hot.I could have stayed there all day, but knew I had to go, so I took some pics of my personal little oasis, changed into my hiking shorts and moved on.Next I started seeing the gigantic James River (the same one I floated with Karen and Ron up in Charlottesville). You parallel it for awhile, and just before the footbridge, I stopped for water. I wasn't feeling ell..just sort of dizzy and my stomach was a bit upset. I sat there for awhile, but finally moved on.Just before getting on the footbridge, I ran into 2 people, Terry and Barb who rode a motorcycle down to see the bridge. They were super nice, full of questions, and it picked up my spirits to talk to them.I climbed up the stairs for the bridge, and there were all these young boys jumping off it into the water, so I asked if someone could take my pic. One guy hopped up and I got to talking to them. They were from the Patrick Henry Boys Home, and Ryan (who was 23) was the house parent, who brought these guys out for the day. He was this very focused individual, whom I was so impressed with. He wants to open his own biblical-based boys home, and he absolutely loves what he does. He was asking me tons of questions, and then food came up. So..he offers to make me a sandwhich, so how can I refuse right? LOL He goes to make a second and asks, "Do you want me to wrap this up for later?" and I'm like, "Ah, no, I'll just go ahead and it that one right now to." LOL Then he points to this huge sack of snacks like Cheez-Its, fudge stripe cookies, etc., and tells me I can have the whle thing! I was hesitant at first because he did have like 8 young boys with him, but Ryan said t! hey had A TON more @ their house. Well....twist my arm. but I put the straps of the sack (which was from The Gap..I thought that was funny) through one of my pack straps and decided I'd hike this 3lb bag of goodies to the next shelter and share with everyone there. And, I felt a lot better after eating those 2 sandwiches, so I think I'm not eating enough calories now. THANKS RYAN AND THE BOYS FROM THE PATRICK HENRY BOYS SCHOOL!It was only 1.7 more miles, where I'd planned to stop anyway. On my way a 3 foot long black snake was on the trail. It did not want to move, so I had to gently touch it with my hiking pole. It was not happy about that at all.I got to Johns Hollow Shelter around 5:00 p.m. and Bill and John were there as was a thru-hiker named Dan whom I've never met. Seeing I've yet to find the owner of that watch and knife, I gave Dan the watch, his was broken. I didn't cook dinner, since I had snacks, and we all ate some goodies! It's 66 degrees @ 8:30 p.m. A good day. ~Certain