Date: 2006-06-09
From: Draggon's Tooth, Va

To: Catawba, Va
Miles today: 10.0

I got up at 6:15 this morning and got my Starbuck's brewing and ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.It was very windy at times over night. The good thing about that was that after it stopped raining last night, the high winds dried my tent off.I also heard some turkeys yesterday after I got into my tent (about 5pm) and then I heard them again this morning before I left.Today I get to eat at The Homeplace!!! Woohoo!!! :-)))I got packed up and was walking at 7:30am in wet clothes, wet shoes and socks. That's always a nice way to get started...yukkk!!I walked down off Cove Mountain and over Draggon's Tooth, being very careful because of the wet shoes. It's an area where if you take a fall, you may not get a chance to eat at The Homeplace again. :-)))I got down to the road that Four Pines Hostel used to be at and turned left towards the convenience store about .4 miles away.When I got there, I ordered 2 sausage, egg and cheese biscuits and had a quart of milk.I sat out front and off to the far side where I was out of the way and dried my stuff out while I ate. Little Spoon came walking up, then a while after that, Commando and Mandingo showed up.I spent about an hour there because I only had another 6 miles to walk to get to Catawba where The Homeplace is and it doesn't open until 4pm.Diesel '04 pulled up and we talked for a while. He said he saw us sitting there and remembered in '04 when he had done the same thing. He's out here in the area with his son to do a short section of trail he liked.I left and when I got back into the woods, I looked at my watch...it was 11:45am...just 4 hours and 15 minutes until I get FRIED CHICKEN!!!I was about a mile into the woods when I looked up and saw a buck that had antlers just starting to form. They were only about 3 inches long right now. He was about 25 yards in front of me and just stood there trying to see what I was.I kept walking and he decided it was time to go somewhere else. :-)))I climbed up to the ridge and was walking along when I looked off to my right and saw a doe about 20 yards away looking at me. She had a small fawn next to her and that little feller was so small that it couldn't have been much more than a day or two old.She took off and the little feller followed.I got to the road crossing and tried hitching a ride down to Catawba. I stood there for about 10 minutes and when no one had stopped yet, I just walked the mile down the hill to the old general store.I checked my email and sent in an entry before walking over to The Homeplace.I got the The Homeplace at 2:45 and was sitting there waiting on them to open the front doors.I was the first one there. :-)))I went back to the general store and called Hokie Pokie. He is coming out at 7pm to pick me up.At First, he wanted me to wait on him to eat until about 6pm. I was really glad when he said that I should just go ahead and eat with the other hikers and he'd be here at 7pm.I don't think I could have waited!!When 4pm came about, I was starving and salivating and knocking people out of my way to get to my seat and start eating. :-)))I really am glad I didn't have to wait until 6pm. That would have been very hard to do. Heck, by 6pm, I was almost done eating. Ha!!There were 9 hikers and for some reason, they seated us way off in the back corner. Commando, Little Spoon, Mandingo, Crescent City, Garden Gnome, Low Gear, Weeks, Pixie and myself were all there.It was funny to watch everyone dig in when the waitress brought the food out. None of the plates of food hit the table before one of the hikers had it and was filling their own plates. :-)))I had called Hokie Pokie because for the last few days, I've been trying to decide what to do about my heel. I keep trying new things to alleviate the pain, but nothing has worked yet.I have to do something because it's just no fun to walk all day and have every footstep hurt.I'm going to take a little more time off trail for now and work on getting my heel better before I continue with this walk.This year's walk sure hasn't gone the way I planned, but what the heck, if I end up flipping, that would mean I would finish my hike at The Homeplace. :-)))Things could be worse. Ha!!Hokie Pokie picked me up about 7pm and I spent the night at his house in Roanoke.I loaded my photos on my laptop and showed them all to him, then showed him the photos of my hike on the John Muir Trail.Hey Hokie Pokie, thanks for all the help and for keeping my truck at your place. :-)))Trail people are the best!!!