weary as water

every time i blink i have a tiny dream

  • Records
  • Appalachian Trail
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Day 75: Daleville to Wilson Creek Shelter

May 29, 2013 by zag Leave a Comment

11.2 miles

Left at 9am after breakfast. 18 miles to go today. Caught up with Shutterbug & Smiles, they have been hiking together for a few days. Saw Jeremiah, too…pretty impressive since he was partying pretty hard at the mexican restaurant yesterday. We ate a snack at the first shelter, where a group of college kids had spent the night on the first night of their section hike. They had a huge tent that must have weighed 30 pounds, gallon jugs of water, and one kid even had a trumpet.

Soon after morning break we came to a fast moving creek with no footbridge and no big rocks to hop across. This marks the first time I’ve had to take off my shoes to cross a stream! It is a real pain to take  shoes off/cross creek/dry feet/put shoes back on, so I’m glad I don’t have to do it very often. The water was really cold but I managed not to fall in. There were a couple other creek crossings later that day, but one had rocks strategically placed across it, and the other I was able to go upstream and walk across a fallen branch. The streams are full of water because of all the rain we’ve had recently – there are even streams where nothing is marked in the AT Guide – nice to have water so readily available.

Saw a huge black snake slithering across the trail. It was long – probably 5 feet or so – and I gave a little yelp when I saw it. It’s so surprising to see movement on the trail just a few feet from where my feet are. But I’m glad it wasn’t a rattlesnake – I’ve been paranoid about seeing one ever since Greyhound saw a very large rattlesnake on the trail.

Started to feel like rain about 2pm, and I heard thunder about 2:30. I knew I was pretty close to the 2nd shelter so picked up my pace to get there. Literally seconds before the bottom dropped out of the sky, I reached the shelter. Jeremiah, Shutterbug, Smiles, Owl, and Phoenix are all here, waiting for the storm to pass. The storm lasted about 90 minutes, and when it was over we decided to just spend the night here. It was too late after the storm to hike another 7.4 miles to the next shelter (and we’d get there too late to have a spot in the shelter). Plus my knee has been hurting all day and locked up a few times today.

People poured into the shelter, everyone is getting back on the trail after Trail Days. M80 & Trooper are here, so is Big Yankee, Roughneck, Tahlal, lots of others. Jeremiah decided to move on, so did Rainbow Braid, Finder, and a couple others.

Filed Under: appalachian trail Tagged With: OWL, phoenix, shelter, shutterbug, smiles, snake, water crossing

Day 48: Iron Mountain Shelter -> Abingdon Gap Shelter

April 24, 2013 by zag Leave a Comment

16 miles

Nice and easy (but long!) day. Walked today with Shutterbug. She reminds me a lot of a younger version of one of my friends from back home. We walked through a cattle field today. Shutterbug was nervous but I was just walking. There were baby cows! Apparantly M80 & Trooper had trouble with the cow pasture because of their dog, Willow. M80 picked up Willow, who was growling and baring her teeth, and Trooper walked in front of them hitting her sticks together. Trooper said later that the cows started surrounding them and it was very scary. Yet another reason I am glad I don’t have a dog on the trail!

Mom sent a nice email. I’m glad to have such a supportive family.

Just before the trail crossed a road there was a big metal box with crosses on it; trail magic by a local baptist “Girls in Action” church group. Had a first aid kit, some candy, and ice cold sodas.

Met two section hikers; Timberlake & his friend. They are both in their 70s and are section hiking parts of the AT that they like. They had two dogs with them; Max and Chobe. Timberlake said, “tell me where Chobe is and I’ll give you a prize”….and I said…”on a map?” which his friend thought was hilarious. I didn’t get a prize, though.

Ate lunch with M80/Trooper/Willow/Owl/Shutterbug. I really like meeting up for lunch with a group.

Took my time getting to the shelter – man my feet hurt – but was able to talk with AWE for a while. So there are some benefits to being slow. 🙂

At the shelter with Owl, shutterbug, big yank, and techie. M80 & Trooper are tenting (as usual), and a British guy named Smiles is tenting also. We are all very excited to get into Damascus tomorrow. Big Yank has a celebratory beer he has been carrying for 40 miles to drink at the Virginia border. And, of course, it is Owl’s birthday tomorrow!

Filed Under: appalachian trail Tagged With: big yank, chobe, cows, M80, OWL, shelter, shutterbug, smiles, techie, timberlake, trail magic, Trooper

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

random quote

Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
Frederick Douglass