Date: 2005-05-02
From: Relax Inn (Atkins VA) 

To: Crawfish Valley Campsite 
Miles today: 6.3

Day 47 Poked my head out of the room to see cloudy skies. Overcast that¢s more like it. Adds credibility to my hike. Can¢t be having all that sunshine or people will think your having fun. Yappy, Dead Animal, Blue eye and I all went to breakfast. Blue eye and I are almost to the point where we can order one of everything. I had a western omelet, biscuits & gravy, French toast and too much coffee. Shuttled to the post office and grocery then back to the hotel. We stayed at the Relax Inn, which has improved since I was last there. They have cable, Internet access and laundry. Best of all a short walk to Dairy Queen. On our way out of town I stop at DQ for a value meal, blizzard & ice cream cone. I don¢t know that one should mix coffee, eggs, ice cream and soda together. It¢s a bit volatile. It¢s a tricky business jumping from trail food to town food, then back again. You are to the point that no matter what you eat you won¢t gain weight or be full. The #1 rule is know where all your bathrooms are and how long it is to get to them. You when you¢re in the woods you go whenever the urge hits. You find a happy little tree out of the view of the trail and away you go. When you eat town food the process speeds up. So if one eats a pizza and gets caught without a bathroom, he¢s looking and wandering how often this guy looks out & at his backyard? Anyway we only did 6 miles today. Blue eye got to Crawfish Valley, which had many campsites and a stream. We set up camp early and had a fire. Blue eye¢s girlfriend (Angie) is coming to meet him on Sunday in Pearisburg. That¢s 90 miles away so we saw no point in rushing to get there. The weather is supposed to get better. So perhaps we will just stroll into Pearisburg. I did quickly or as quick as I could check my Journal and email. I was quite happy to see Leon had signed my guest book. He picked me up at Newfound Gap and gave me a ride into Gatlinburg. I¢m hoping to take a zero day somewhere I can use a computer for a bit. The one¢s I¢ve used lately are apparently using the same technology as my Sprint cell phone which I think is two tin cans and some string. The string has been out sourced to some third world country and is cheap and it keeps breaking. Then they have to tie knots in it. Umm..in other words they are slow. I¢ve been entertained as of late reading the shelter journals. Usually there¢s a journal at each shelter that you sign and leave messages. You get to see who was there and when. Anyway there is a hiker who at every shelter draws a detailed picture of a bird with color then a little description below. The humor is a couple days later there is a picture of a cat and he¢s just ate whatever bird he had talked about. Today was the Grey Wobbler ¢best eaten alive, watch out for the back he¢s a fighter¢ The day before the bird was good in an orange sauce. Oh the humor¢¦Only went 6 miles today not much to say. We went up and over a hill, but then that¢s what we do. I¢d like to think spring is somewhere close. The trees on the mountains are still sleeping, no leaves. You¢d think after all the rain I¢d have to use a machete to hike, but not so. My theory is that my gear soaks up much of the rain then when I camp it drains. I¢m thinkin¢ there are little green patches every 15 miles or so.