Date: 2004-04-26
From: Cornelius Creek Shelter, VA

To: Day 47: Thunder Ridge Overlook at BRP Mile 74.7
Miles today: 6.3
Weather: moderate rain

Realizing that unless my right ankle/shin made a miraculous recovery over night, and considering the distance and hill work that were required for AT Day 47, I once again set my alarm for 4:30 a.m. For breakfast I tried a slightly new twist, instead of simply hydrating the instant oatmeal and dehydrated fruit and non-fat milk in cold water, I added my normal breakfast allocation of the whey protein mix ¢ vanilla instead of chocolate ¢ along with the water. Now while I am not saying that it was the best thing I have ever eaten for breakfast, I liked this concoction and I think that in the summer months I may use this as my normal meal since it will clearly be welcomed in the hot humid weather I expect we will have to endure.Since I didn¢t have to cook, or break down and pack my tent, I was ready to hike on the AT before it was light enough to see the blazes, so I enjoyed the foggy view for 15 minutes or so and left around 6:00 a.m. The weather forecast called for light to heavy rain sporadically during the day so I put on my waterproof pack cover and made sure my Gore-Tex rain gear was handy. However, given that it was in the mid-50¢s I decided to not wear my rain gear in favor of trying to stay cool and relatively sweat-free as I climbed a 1,000 feet to the summit of Apple Orchard Mountain. Unfortunately, within the first quarter mile a light rain started so on went the Gore-Tex jacket; but I decided to let my shorts get wet. A while later the rain stopped, so off went the jacket, but it soon started to rain again so I went back to wearing my jacket and this time I left it on.Climbing to the 4,225-foot summit of Apple Orchard Mountain was not particularly difficult, but I still took my time so as to reduce additional damage to my right foot/shin. At the summit I couldn¢t even see the FAA facility, but I could certainly hear its whining instrumentation sounds. Very shortly after reaching the summit, the AT went under what has been called ¢The Guillotine,¢ a rock of perhaps five feet in diameter that is lodged between two much larger rocks, and looks as though it could slip and crush an unlucky hiker. Given that the AT then took a long descending path, I had to move particularly carefully since my injured right leg was now quite painful. I also made sure to keep my vitamin I titer at its upper limit.Over the next two miles, the AT crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway twice and on the second occasion, I decided to once again try my luck with my cell phone. When I turned it on, I was immediately informed that I had NINE voice mail messages and that my battery was low ¢ what to do? Try to make a call or listen to the messages, which I assumed were all from my now probably distraught wife. I chose to listen to the messages and sure enough they were from Hot Chocolate who told me that she did not get any of my messages until the afternoon when she happened to move to a part of the park with a better signal coverage.One of my wife¢s messages announced that she would wait at the Thunder Ridge Overlook until 10:00 a.m. and then move on to the James River. Since it was now 10:15 a.m., I quickly tried to make a call to tell where I was, but my battery was so low I wasn¢t sure it would work ¢ it didn¢t appear to. My next option was to hustle as quickly as I could over to the Thunder Ridge Overlook ¢ not more than a quarter mile away ¢ but unfortunately my wife wasn¢t there (I later learned that she left a written message that I did not see), so I started to hike down the Blue Ridge Parkway toward the James River. After about a half mile or so, I decided to check my maps ¢ I had not done this earlier since it was raining ¢ but when I did I quickly saw that hiking down the BRP to the river was a bad idea, it didn¢t even cross the river where the AT makes its crossing. So in disgust I turned around and started plodding up the BRP back to where I left off on the AT with a plan to restart my hike at the 6.3-mile point, and hope to meet up with my wife either late that day when the AT crossed the river or the day after at our previously arranged pick-up site.For once the AT gods were kind and within 10 minutes of my return road walk, I saw my wife piloting our big Ford F-250 diesel truck with the trailer in tow. Clearly I was relieved, as was my wife, but we were both so distraught from the confusion and unknowns of the previous two days that we had to work hard to keep our greetings upbeat. My wife told me that it wasn¢t entirely clear if it were legal to drive a big truck and trailer like ours on the BRP, and she had been doing it for hours over two days in rain and fog. Given this potential concern we carefully and slowly made our exit from this scenic but sometimes-dangerous highway. We went to the first town we could find (Glasgow) for a hearty lunch and a hopefully pleasant discussion about what had happened and what we were to do next. The former is still a bit of a mystery, but the latter included a drive that day to Denver, PA, where we stayed in a motel before visiting the Sunline Trailer factory the next day.One important decision was made as a result of this experience, we were going to invest in a couple of satellite phone, and the savings in diesel gas alone would cover the costs¢¦ At the motel, we also noticed that my right ankle/shin was clearly swollen, so it was clear that my continuing the hike for two more days would not have been a good idea. Luckily in the end it all turned out well. Now we will take several days off to visit with my youngest son in Hagerstown, MD, fly down to the University of Florida to attend his Ph.D. graduation and hopefully buy a new stove (or the replacement part) and allow my injuries to heal before the next segment of my AT adventure begins around May 1.