Date: 2004-06-11
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter

To: Matts Creek Shelter
Miles today: 22.7
Weather: overcast clouds

It was a pleasant though gray morning. Speaking of gray, it seems to me that Gray Squirrel came by last night shortly after we arrived. He didn't stay, as he doesn't stay in shelters. He headed a couple of hundred feet up the trail and strung his covered hammock between a couple of trees. It started raining shortly after that but he was fine. He was just an amazing guy. This was not his first attempt at the trail. Last year he had gotten as far as Connecticut when Lyme Disease got the best of him. He does twenty miles every day. By the time we woke he was long gone.We had a good time talking with our new found friends here at Bryant Ridge Shelter. It turned out that they met on the trail. They seemed to be making it work. When they figured out how fast we were moving the guy asked if we could deliver a message for him. It seemed he had started the trail with another friend, RoadRunner. He wanted to let him know that he would probably not be catching up because, well, he met a woman. We confessed that we might never catch up to him if he is moving fast. He knew that and asked us to carry the message anyway. He wrote a note and I stuffed it in my guidebook zip lock bag. From here on we would ask the trail name of every hiker we encountered.The day improved with sun by Cornelius Creek Shelter. An older guy was there. He's a trail maintainer. The girl we had shared Bryant Ridge Shelter with last night was there too. The guy gave us lots of info and local color. I thanked him for the good work. He mentioned some trail magic in the form of Cokes he had left in the creek. That was a mighty nice gesture even to this non Coke guy.After a while the trail emerged in a mountain top meadow that was home to a radar dome. The sign said this was Apple Orchard Mountain with an elevation of 4,225 feet. The radar is apparently operated by the FAA. It is still a strange site. The views were great.Not far down the mountain was another strange sight. It's called The Guillotine. It's a giant chock stone wedged between two shear rock faces a good 15 feet above the trail which of course has to pass under this thing. What a photo op. There wasn't anyone else there so this required some precarious camera perching and the judicious use of the timer feature. It was well worth it though.Hiker Feed:For the last couple of days we had been hearing about an upcoming hiker feed. We were even reading about it in the shelter journals. This was pretty exciting. According to rumor it was supposed to take place where the AT crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway just past the Guillotine. Not only that, it was supposed to be today at 3pm. Well I was right on schedule and Buick couldn't be far behind. Unfortunately there wasn't anyone at the Blue Ridge. In fact there wasn't even a turnout here. Up to the right a turnout was visible a few hundred yards away so I went there. Still no luck. Soon Buick joined me. We hung out there for a while and ate. Then we though maybe its at the next shelter. Yeah, Thunder Hill Shelter was just 0.3 miles from the Parkway. Someone else came along and we all went to the shelter. There were other folks there for the night but no feed. One of the folks there was "loud guy". He was getting on my nerves so I baled on pretty short notice.Trail Magic Rumors:It's awful to anticipate trail magic and then have it not show. Being upset about it makes me feel terribly ungrateful. It's just that you work up such anticipation for it and alter plans and then there's the let down. We vowed never to give any credence to future predictions of trail magic. It would happen if and when it happened and that was all. Grrr. Of course it's tough not to get excited when you see the cooler on the side of the trail and then be dissapointed when it is empty. Oh well.Loud Guy:Loud Guy is a sort of generic term. My friend Keith K first introduced me to it on a hike of the northern section of the Long Trail in Vermont. It refers to that loud obnoxious guy who needs to dominate all conversation. There is usually no getting away short of just leaving. He frequently has views that he foists on the group unasked. He is frequently insulting. He knows everything and has had every experience. We all know this guy.It was after 4pm and we still had 12.4 miles to go. That's ok. We were together and apart at varying times. Later that day I was hiking along with another guy for a while. It might have been Rooney Tunes. At any rate his intention was to camp up on the ridge so he stopped a mile or so before the next shelter. The weather was getting a bit funky with dark clouds off to the right and there was a strange feel in the air of impending doom. It wasn't long after we parted that the trail took to skirting around the top edge of a steep ravine. The footing was rocky here and a hiker was very exposed on the left as the trees dropped away. Suddenly a huge wind came up from the ravine and the clouds burst into a pelting rain. It was like trying to hike above tree line in heavy wind and driving rain. It was tough to guide feet to good purchase while leaning sideways into the wind. I hauled along this section to seek the shelter of the trees beyond. It was one exciting time. Finally the trail began it's 700 foot plummet on switchbacks through the trees. The rain stopped and the light became weird as the low clouds and damp air played games with the setting sun. The trail let my boots come crashing down in a full trot to a bridge which lead to the shelter directly across the creek. This looked like a good end to a 22.7 mile day.The area around Matt's Creek Shelter was pretty soggy. Buick showed up almost immediately. We swapped tales of the storm. He had been a the beginning of the exposed section as I was at the end. There was strange debris about the shelter including things like sweatshirts, jeans, magazines, soda bottles. These were all signs of a shelter that was too close to a road and too popular.