Photos

This is Applicator underneath "The Guillotine". The picture is not great, but in real life it looks like the rock is about to fall down. Around Catawba there are a lot of cool rick formations, from Dragon's Tooth to McAfee Knob and finally this one. I spent a couple of nights with Applicator but he went on ahead to meet other friends and is not stopping for Trail Days, so I will probably not run into him again.







Some of the features have more interesting names than others. We are on top of High Cock Knob at this point. For the week we were together at this point we were calling ourselves the Kielbasa Klub. This is Hot Dog, Lady Snake, Footlong and Chorizo. I was Bratwurst.




The rhododendron are now in bloom. This is a view of the James River right before I got to route 501 and trail magic.







This is Peacock and myself in the back of a pickup truck that was giving us a ride to the post office in Montebello. We have found that people in pickup trucks are the most likely to stop and give thru hikers a ride, especially groups. It is because we can just ride on the pickup bed and the drivers do not need to smell us.





Some days are better than others. This day started well with a nice hike up from John's Hollow Shelter. Then I entered a cloud and it got windy and cold. Then after lunch it started raining and I did the last five miles in a drenching downpoar. The rain stopped one minute before we got to the shelter.

Kiltgate

My friend Shadow Cast has been trying about the last month to get a skirt, I mean hiking kilt. When we were in Damascus Peacock got his, and that put the idea in Shadow's head. He tried one on at the outfitter in town, but was not sure if he wanted it. Before leaving town he flipped a coin, and the coin told him not to get it. Once we left town he changed his mind and at the next town he called his friend Katie and asked for her to get the kilt and send it to the next town we were going to stop at in about 6 days. We get there, and there is no package. He calls Katie and asks "What's up?" She was not sure what color he wanted, and did not buy it. Shadow is disappointed because it only comes in one color. He did not think that would be an issue. So she says OK, it will be at the next town. At the next town, still no kilt. He calls up and found out that she did not know what size. Next town, no kilt because she did not know which town to send it to. Next town and still no package. Shadow calls Katie, and she thinks he must be joking at this point. She had paid 20 for overnight shipping. She started cursing even though she was at the f%&#@ng Lowes. She called FedEx and the package had been delivered and rejected. Appartently she did not write "hold for AT Thru hiker" as part of the address. Finally she sent on to the house where we are currently staying. As we are being driven here we find out that one of the packages sent to Carlos had been opened by Bigfoot's wife. It was addressed to Bigfoot and she did not recognize the contents so she sent it back. This sent Shadow back into freakout mode. He called up Katie got the tracking number and we stoppped at the local FedEx location, but it was not there. When we get to Bigfoot's house we find out that it was a USPS box she had sent back, and the FedEx package with the skirt was there are waiting. So after one month and almost 350 miles Shadow is now happily wearing his skirt. I will post a picture of him in his kilt sometime after Trail Days.

Wet

Greetings from Lexington, VA. I am visiting a college friend of my dad's and getting a well needed shower and laundry. It has been 6 days since my last shower (Troutville) and 8 (Catawba) since I last did laundry. However I have been wet plenty of times since then. Sometimes by choice, jumping into a river, and sometimes not by choice when I got rained on.
After I left the Comfort Inn in Troutville my next goal was to meet a friend of mine in Lynchburg on Saturday for lunch. Shadow Cast, Rocko and Vagabond had to get to the Post Office on the same road before it closed at 10:30am that Saturday. So after one easy day from town we pushed a 21 mile day to a gorgeous shelter. This was a tri-level shelter with enclosed picnic table. Very nice. It was also very dry up in the loft as the huge thunderstorm hit that night. Thunderstorms are always more enjoyable when you are somewhere dry. The next day I was tired, so I stopped and camped after 17 miles while everyone else continued on another 5 miles to the next shelter. At the shelter they found out about some trail magic at the trail head and continued on. They then spent a noisy night camped under the train tracks next to the road. I stayed in my tent, listened to a thundersorm and slept for 11 hours. I woke and continued on. At the shelter I found out that the trail magic was also coooking breakfast in the morning, and set my speed record for 2.2 miles. I had met the person cooking food about three weeks earlier when he was cooking further south. So while he cooked eggs and bacon I ate Krispy Kreme donuts and set out my tent to dry. So in balance I had a grewat night sleep and breakfast, they had a horribloe night, but had hamburgers before going to bed.
After breakfast I hitched towards Lynchburg to the nearest gas station where I could get cell phone service. After a wonderful AYCE Indian buffet with my friend Meghann and her sister I was back on the trail. I thought that I would meet up with everyone again at the first shelt 2 miles from the road, but they had finished their errands earlier and had moved on. This shelter had abrand new wheelchair accesible privy. This was the third wheelchair accesible privy I have come across. Don't get me wrond the ADA act is great, but can we exercise a little common sense? I spent a quiet night with two south bound section hikers burning the wood from the old privy. It did not smell but burned well and quickly.
The next morning I woke up and hiked into a cloud. The wind was blowing something awful and it got cold. I met up with Shadow at the next shelter, but PeakAxe, Vagabond and Rocko had all moved on. I was ready to call it a day and not hike on because of the weather. Shadow insisted we move on so we would only have a 1.7 mile hike out the next day, so on we went. We walked down out from the cloud and then it started raining. When we were 5 miles out from the next shleter the lightning anf thunder started, and the rain worsened. We picked up the pace and I set my 5 miles speed record. However that did not stop the rain from completely soaking everything we were wearing and going through our pack covers. We arrived at the next shelter just as the rain stopped and the sun came out. We switched into our warm and dry clothes and went into our sleeping bags. After drying out and warming up we hung our clothes out to dry. Unfortunely it rained again that night so we just hiked out in our long underwear knowing we would do laundry today. It been fairly old the last couple of days, so while we were waiting for out ride we were huddled on a picnic table sitting on a thermarest under sleeping bag. It is always fun going into a restuarant just in your long underwear, so I put my running shorts on over them. I am not sure that it was an improvement.
The current plan is to go to Trail Days in Damascus and then do Hardcore. Tomorrow we will be meeting back up with Peacock and Daddy-O and then hitting a free hiker lunch on Wednesday before getting picked up by Bigfoot (he section hiked GA with Shadow and myself), then head down on Friday. This will mean about a week off the trail, but hopefully some more good stories.

Some More Pics

Cinqo de Mayo at the Rancho Viejo in Troutville. This is right after we got our free Coronas and our second round of margaritas. From left to right PeakAxe, Vagabond, me, Shadow Cast, Rocko and Padre. Everyone except Padre took a zero day afterwards.






This is Tinker Cliffs. We had a great day for our slack pack and the trail goes right along the cliffs at this point.










This is Shadow Cast at Pine Swamp Branch shelter. A tree feel on the roof last year, but the scraps were all still there so we made a fire. To make it bigger we threw some logs down the top.










These are the flames coming out the top of the chimney. The chimney was about 12 feet high, and we had the flames coming out about 4 feet above it. Luckily it did not rain that night since there wee no good tenting sites around it.









This is PeakAxe on top of the Dragon's Tooth. The trail was a nice ridgewalk up to the top. The trail just went straight down the side. It was one of the hardest descents we have done so far. But we had a goal of getting to the Homeplace restaurant.

Some Pics

Right after we left the Partnership shelter (where we ordered pizza) and the Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area Headquarterswe came across this sign. This is Daddy-O posing. The trail crossed a forest rod right afterwards that was being wrked on. We were surprised that it needed a sign on the trail. We were able to hear the machines for the previous five minutes, and it is not like we are going so fast.



This is PeakAxe on a rainy day. At this point he did not have a light weight hiking shirt, so the day before he had hiked without his shirt and got badly burned on his arms. So this day he had two "sleeves" to cover his burned arms. Since it had been raining he had his pack cover on.





This is the church breakfast. On the left of the table are Respect and Applicator. On the right are Daddy-O and Shadow Cast. I left completely full and had the most amazing blackberry cobbler.








This is PeakAxe and Vagabond and our 9 empty peach cobbler cups at the Homeplace restaurant. For meat eaters it was amazing.








This is McAfee Knob, about the most photographed spot on the AT. This is between Catawba and Troutville. It is hard to tell, but this is Shadow, Rocko, Myself, Vagabond and PeakAxe. I am not sure about the order. We spent about an hour here on our "slackpack."

Black Snake Stare Down

I am now in Trouville, VA 714 miles from Springer and I am taking a zero. Yesterday we did a 19 mile slack pack from Catawba. Slack packing is hiking without your pack. Either you are dropped up the trail and hike back or someone delivers your bag to where you are going. We were lucky and had our bags driven ahead for us. It is amazing how nice it is to hike without your bag. You feel like you are flying and you can cover the ground very quickly. But then you take more longer breaks and still can end up coming in very late.

Yesterday was Cinqo do Mayo, so our goal was to get margaritas at the end of the hike. We ended up getting off the trail at around 7 and across the street was the restaurant. So we decided to eat before checking into the hotel. At that point we were all hungry and thirsty and did not want to backtrack. We show up and there is a two hour wait, but Shadow speaks Spanish and was able to convince the hostess to seat us right away. We order our margaritas and our double sized portions of food (Peakaxe and Vagabond split the fajitas for four) and enjoy sitting outside. Right after we order our second round the DJ annouces that they have free beer for the first 44 people who come to the bar. We all run in, most of us without stopping to put our shoes on. When we return, beers in hand, our second round of maragitas are waiting on the table for us. The Dj also said that this was just the beginning. As we are getting ready to pay, there have been no more give aways. Shadow then goes up to the DJ and asks about this. Two minutes later a complementary pitcher of beer arrives. We felt that we did justice to the holiday.

Before geting to Catawba as I was hiking I came across a 4 foot black snake in the trail. This was the second I had come across, but the first time it was cold and the snake was lethargic. This time it was a warm afternoon. I stop and let Shadow take a look at the snake. He asks if I want to try and get it off the trail, but I let him have the honors. The snake curently has his tail towards us. Shadow takes his trekking pole and taps the snake's tail. The snake turns around and goes into attack position. We quickly beat a retreat down the trail. Now we try throwing rocks at the snake. The snake is not fooled and is still staring right out us. After a couple of minutes I try going around it. We had not tried this at first since it was fairly steep on the sides around the snake. As I go above it, the snake is tracking me, watching me move around it. Shadow then throws a couple of more rocks so it is looking at him and I move around as quickly and as safely as possible. Shadow then follows and the snake was still in the trail waiting for the next hiker. We had tried to stare it down, and we lost.

The Roof Is On Fire

I am now in Catawba, VA 695 miles and 50 days of hiking from Springer. My second pair of shoes are now 420 trail miles old and starting to show there age. I am hoping that they last about 10 more days until Trail Days in Damascus. There should be a bunch of gear manufacturers there, and hopefully I can get a deal on my next pair of shoes.
Leaving Pearisburg my goal was the Homeplace restaurant in Catawba. This is an ALCE southern food restaurant that is only open Thursday through Sunday. So I had to get 75 miles done in 3 and a half days. It was a push, and Daddy-O and Peacock decided that they did not want to do it, so they are a day and a half behind me now. I arrived this afternoon with Rocko (Leave No Trace Guru), Shadow Cast (High Speed, Low Drag), Vagabond (theearthexpedition.com) and Peakaxe (Big Stick into Little Pieces). Unfortunately this restaurant was not as vegetarian friendly as I had hoped, and Shadow and Rocko decided not to eat with us. However Vagabond, Peakaxe and I made up for them. Two fried chicken breasts, 3 pieces of country ham, 3 biscuits with apple butter, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, pinto beans, coleslaw, 3 peach cobblers with ice cream and an hour later, I was stuffed. This place routinely gets voted the best restaurant on the AT, and so far I agree. It was wonderful. I was not hungry for a good three or four hours later. What made it even better was that I had been thinking about fried chicken for the previous week and it was great. When we got there we were the only hikers around. Almost everyone was dressed up for church. It was an amazing contrast, they all smelt so clean. We were an odity to them and we recieved lots of questions, and everyone was friendly and curious.
The first night out of Pearisburg I stayed at a shelter with the above mentioned folk that did not have a roof. Last year a tree fell on the shelter and broke the roof. There had been some clean up done and there was a ot of available firewood. This shelter also had a fireplace "inside." We cleared enough space for five of us to sleep and then went to work on the fire. Because of the lack of roof on the shelter we were able to directly access the top of the fireplace. We started with small pieces of roof from the bottom and threw a couple of logs and large boards down from the top and went to town. We managed to get flames coming out four feet above the top of the chimney, about 16 feet above the bottom of the fireplace. It was awesome and I have the pictures to prove it.
I am currently at the house of a "trail angel." Barnabus hiked in '06 and decided to help out hikers this year. He left a bunch of cards in the shelters around here and with the biscuits he left at a road crossing. He picked us up after lunch at the homeplace, drove us to the grocery store and tomorrow with take us back to the trailhead and "slack" us by taking our packs up to Troutville, 19 miles up the trail. Then it is time for me to take a zero day, so I will probably add another update soon.
ps, check out Vagabond's website, www.theearthexpedition.com, and what he is doing