Date: 2005-06-04
From: Pass Mountain Hut

To: Skyline Drive 17.7 mile post
Miles today: 13.3

Today was a planned short mileage day because Mark and Jan were coming to meet us at Gravel Springs Hut. We planned this ahead of time.I got a late start this morning. OC1 was out at the same time as usual. I didn't start out until 7:40.We were planning to walk 7.4 miles to Elkwallow Wayside, where the intention was to eat.Easy Goer was just starting to stretch when I was leaving.When I started out, I took a good slip on a log. I didn't do much damage, so I kept on walking. This was about an hour after I had left.The next thing I knew, Goat was walking next to me. I hadn't heard him talking to me because I had my isolation ear phones in with music blasting. I yanked them out and he said, "SWIFT, I have been yelling at you for minutes man! I have been calling your name and everything!"I couldn't hear him because I had Metallica on full blast.The sad thing was, when I pulled the ear phones out of my ears, I broke the left one. I must have pulled the wire out.Now I am listening in 'mono', which can't last long. I'm going to have to buy another set of ear phones. The music is an important part of my walk, it helps me pass the day. I can't do without it.I called Jan a couple of times yesterday when I was up on top of Pinnacles. She asked me if I wanted her to bring food, which was a silly question. One of her suggestions was pizza, which was what Easy Goer had wanted, so I told her to bring that.He held his hand, palm up, at his shoulder and said, " This motion can be held for at least 2/10s of a mile along the Trail." Which is the distance down to the shelter from the road.At Elkwallow Wayside, we found out that all of the hikers that had stayed at the shelter before, were going to run 12 miles today and stay at Gravel Springs Hut. We figured we would be left behind, but that's not the case. I got to thinking that there was no way that Mark and Jan were going be able to bring pizza and Coronas for everybody that was going to be there, and it would be rude to just sit there and eat. So, I decided to run off earlier than planned from Elkwallow Wayside to make sure I met them on the road and tell them not to bring the food up. We would just eat there.I hauled ass and about at the very top of the mountain, about 1,000 feet up out of Elkwallow, OC1 caught up with me. We walked together and stopped at the shelter first to check out the camping situation there.   We wanted to see if there were tentable spots that we could at least come back to. It turned out to be a crappy shelter. We also knew it was going to be full. We went ahead and walked down to the road with our packs on, rather than dropping them at the shelter. We got down to the road and Jan was already there at 1:45. I was glad to see her. Mark was nowhere in sight. He decided to bring a day pack and go into the woods and go hiking for a while. He showed up shortly after.We sat around for the rest of the afternoon in the parkinglot here at Skyline Drive. We drank the Coronas, and ate pizza, Fig Newtons and chips and salsa. We sat around and chatted. In the process, other hikers started walking by. We invited them to come join us. Jude, Just Bob, and Jacks were there. We managed to consume the entire case of Coronas and all the pizza that was there. It was too bad for Crazy Legs and Scavenger, they were the last ones to show up and there were no Coronas left. It was OK because they had just come out of town. They had elected to do an aqua blaze, which means that they did a canoe trip with Catch 23. They told me that tomorrow they plan on getting a ride into Washington, D.C. and hang out there for a few days. It seems like everyone is wanting to take a break right around now. I can't blame them, I know I do. Mark and Jan left at about 6 o'clock. We went back to the fire trail near Skyline Drive, about 100 yards. We decided to just set up camp there. Easy Goers eyes were bigger than his stomach I guess, he decided to stick all the salsa in a baggie and take all the chips with him, and he couldn't eat them. It's about dark. I want to get to bed early today. Tomorrow we have a 19 mile run that shouldn't be that bad. We want to get into Jim and Molly Denton Shelter early enough to drop our stuff there and go shopping in Linden. It's a mile to Linden and a mile back. We want to get our supplies for the next few days. The Waysides twice a day are over. We have to do some serious shopping for 2 days worth of running to get to David Lesser Shelter and drop down into Mark Z's house. That's it for tonight.