Date: 2008-04-23
From: Maupin Field Shelter VA

To: Paul C. Wolfe Shelter VA
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 66 ¢ Wednesday April 23 ¢ Paul C. Wolfe Shelter VA ¢ Miles Today: 15.8 Total Miles: 845.5It rained lightly during the early evening last night, so all that work we had done drying out the tarp and the tent was for nothing. We woke at our normal 5:20 to more gray skies and 52 degrees.   We headed off in the fog in our shorts and #1. We spent most of the morning and early afternoon in the fog and then the sun finally came out!   I think this is our first dose of Vitamin D in about 4 days! Today the big issue, in addition to the rocks, was hunger. We have terrible, terrible hunger. We have determined that in addition to under buying on the Pop Tarts for breakfast by mistake, that the Chewy Granola bars for our snacks are just not sufficient. We miss our food drops that have a good mixture of protein, carbs and fat. There is definitely a huge difference between hiking on sugar and hiking on a balanced diet. Grasshopper actually stood in the middle of the Blue Ridge Parkway and threatened to wave down the next car that came by to beg for food. But Brakeman told her that she was wasting calories standing in the middle of the road so she started hiking again. She also threatened to stop any hiker that she saw today and yogi for food. Luckily, we did not pass anybody until after a hearty lunch quieted our hunger pains. We passed one solo southbound hiker and a couple from Colorado out for a 3-week hike on the AT, also southbound. The couple from Colorado run a camp that closes for a couple months each year. During the closed periods, they hike and travel and have had the wonderful opportunity to hike in many countries. Despite her earlier threats, Grasshopper held back the urge to ask them for food.We took several more pictures of wildflowers that are just springing up right and left. We're seeing different varieties each day, so it¢s very pretty. So even though we don't always have views, we are at least able to see views at our feet. The trees are bursting out all over the place. There is a chance that maybe someday soon we'll have shade as we hike, though that has not been an issue for the last 3 or 4 gray days. Short of the shelter, we stopped to call the Waynesboro Visitor's Center, which has a group of Trail Angels who shuttle hikers to town, as it¢s 4.5 miles to town. We scheduled our pickup for 8:30 tomorrow morning which means we need to hit the trail at 6:00 a.m. as we have 5 miles to cover and we certainly don't want to be late for the Trail Angel who is picking us up! We arrived at camp, Paul C. Wolfe Shelter, about 4:20 to full sunshine. This shelter is located in a beautiful setting. Once again, we hung the clothesline in an attempt to dry the rain gear and the tent rain fly. The sleeping bags were laid out in our open tent to try to remove the dampness from them. We're enjoying the beautiful shelter that has a covered picnic table area looking down over a hill and a creek. It's quite relaxing. Only a few bugs are out. It¢s quiet, as we have the shelter to ourselves.For dinner, we actually ate our emergency spare dinner of couscous along with mashed potatoes, corn and peas. We also drank a ton of water hoping that it would give our stomachs a full feeling. We topped off the water with 4 Oreos each. We could have eaten more.This evening we worked on our grocery store list for Waynesboro. This time we¢re going to try moderation. Wonder how that will work when all we have thought about for the past few days is food. Even objects on the trail started looking like food to us! Little sticks looked like pretzels. Tree buds looked like cheerios. We had to make a conscious effort to NOT stop and pick up the objects that looked like food. We have definitely lost weight. The button and zipper on Brakeman¢s pants no longer serve any purpose; he can pull his pants down without even using them! The Post Office opens at 8:30. We hope to be there when it opens to pick up our food drop, Brakeman¢s new backpack and new shoes for both of us. Then we want to immediately head to the Quality Inn. Hopefully they will let us check in at 9:00 a.m. and raid the continental breakfast! The couple from Colorado that we talked to today said they have a hiker rate of $50 and a continental breakfast of hard boiled eggs, yogurt, fruit, make-your-own waffles and an assortment of other things. Gosh, sounds too good to be true! We¢re looking forward to a semi-rest day tomorrow before we head through the Shenandoahs. It's about 6:00. Not sure of the exact temperature as the thermometer is in the tent and we¢re in the shelter. I'm guessing that since it was 69 degrees earlier in the day that it's probably in the mid 60s now. Goodnight from just shy of Waynesboro.