Date: 2003-05-08
From: Dahlgren Back Pack Campground

To: Pogo Memorial Campsite
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: light rain

The tent has done ok, for in the a.m. there are more dry spots than wet and only the foot of the sleeping bag has soaked up rain. Two of the nites campsites clear out early as they have a friend to meet. They have been gone no more than 20 min. when another stormfront hits. This one with hail and plenty of it! Myself and the remaining tenters take shelter in the shower stalls and wait it out. Later, I find out that the others are ok. When it let's up to a light shower, I don my new rain gear and hike out. At the I-70 footbridge, the trail goes thru someones front yard to the back yard and down the back fence to the footbridge. The Trail is only 2 feet wide with a nice border on each side. The property owner had his own little register there with a "Please sign our register" sign. How could anyone refuse? The man allowed an unending army of anonomyous hikers to cross thru his front yard for Heaven's sake. I know darn well there was some political wrangling going on over that! There were so many accomodations made by so many people so that folks like myself could enjoy this slice of Americana. The Pine Knob Shelter is noted in Wingfoot's Trail book as being a popular hangout for partying locals. There are a group of stoner's (druggies) coming down the trail. These guys aren't hikers. Am glad to see them go, but then a guy and his neighbor's wife show up with a blanket for a session of "Afternoon Delite". By this time, I had already read in the register about Dogpatch Tavern, a drinking establishment I missed and only 3/4 mile behind me down the road. "We take care of biker trash and hiker trash on our Mountain" is the logo. I wouldn't want to miss that, so I leave the shelter to the lusting couple and hike back out and down to the bar to get my share of "Dogpatch Experience". The place is full of fat, tattooed biker types and sleazy lookin' women. I love it. The lst beer doesn't last 15 seconds and I'm ordering the special twice. Two BBQ baskets and 3 beers later, I ask to see the menu. I eat dinner 3 times and can drink with the best of 'em. They are impressed and we are all buddies by the time I leave to hike back up the mountain. To tell the truth, I'm pretty well buzzed as I hump up yet another grade, when I come upon 3 women yakking it up in the trail. I do a double take. The girl with the Beagle dog is Bookworm, who I met at Trail Days '01. She doesn't remember me at all, but a few Miss Janet stories and the Dallas Fire Dept. cap and she and I are telling hiker yarns and doing the "whatever happened to" thing. Turns out she is caretaker for the Annapolis Rocks campgrounds. She is on her way up to police the area, and try to eliminate some of the vandalism and graffiti left by the local partyers. Hikers don't do that stuff, but we seem to be the responsible parties, so it falls to us to fix it. Seems like, anyway. We hike together for 20 min. or so and then she turns off to Annapolis Rocks and I am hiking alone in the rain again. I've pretty much used up the buzz from Dogpatch when I hike into Pogo Memorial Campsite. It's just a tent site with a spring and privy, but I'm tired and wet and here I stay. The tent goes up. The rain comes down. I'm at peace with the world. Nite, nite all.