Hi Everyone
Patty and I walked into Waynesboro VA this morning from a shelter where we tented about 5 miles away. We walked off of the trail up to Rockfish Gap and as soon as we did an SUV pulled up and asked where we wanted to go. This was really better service than the airport cabs. The driver gave us a card that said trail angel on it and he said there were about 25 people in the local area who helped out hikers. He gave us a little tour of this town of 20,000 and then dropped us off at the Quality Inn. We checked in at 9:30 am and Patty noticed the breakfast buffet was still going so she asked if we could eat and of course they said yes. So we had our second breakfast of the morning. We usually eat our oatmeal on the trail and we even still each had a bagel left, but, the waffles and bisquits and gravey were a lot tastier at the motel.
After checking in we took showers, got laundry done, and then went to the Pizza Hut buffet lunch. We think we will go to some type of Asian buffet for supper. We just seem to have great appetites lately.
I will try to catch up since our last post from Daleville.
On 5-20, we left Daleville after a stay at the Howard Johnson's. Patty did some shopping in the AM and we did not get out of there until 11:00. We hiked a little over 11 miles and camped at the second shelter we came to. After setting up the tent we made supper and then went through the shelter journal. I am not sure if I have talked about shelter journals or not, but, each shelter has a journal. It is usually just a notebook and it is used as a way for people to communicate on the trail. If you stay in the shelter or tent nearby or if you are just passing through or stopping for lunch it is customary to make some type of entry into the journal. It might be as simple as "Red Dog and Lucky Dog stopped for lunch and then note the date. The journals are a way for people to keep track of where other people are on the trail and if you want you can leave notes for people who are behind you. Anyway while I was paging through the journal I noticed an entry from about two weeks before from "Willing and Able", AKA Phil and Val Rogosheske from St Cloud that said "back on the trail after 13 months, now on to Conneticut". Some of you might know them as Rogo coached at St Cloud Tech and is an avid skier and racer. I knew he and Val had pulled off the trail last year, but, did not know where. We have been watching the journals and have gained a day or so on them, but, they are moving about the same speed so I doubt if we will catch them.
On 5-21 we started hiking and following some of the trail that parallels the Blue Ridge Parkway or BRP. The BRP is a scenic road that is part of the National Park system and runs for over 300 miles. Much of this roadway used to be the A.T. and when they put the road in they moved the trail to one side or the other. So at times we are now following the parkway on a trail that is within a half mile of the road and we seem to cross it a number of times each day. If you ever come out east and want a scenic drive I would highly recommend it. I know we will be even closer to it later this week when we enter Shendoah National Park. We hiked 17 miles and tented at a nice site along a river.
5-22 was a great day for hiking and the weather continued to hold with temps getting up into the 70's. We had probably one of the best views of the trail from Apple Orchard Mtn. There are still the remanents of an old Air Force Radar facility at the top, but, you can see forever, because everything around you is flat.
5-23 and 24 continued with great weather and on the 24th we pulled a 20 mile day and hiked into Buena Vista or at least we hiked to the road that leads to Buena Vista. About 16 miles into the hike we came to a road crossing and as we crossed the road an older man motioned us over and asked us if we were hungary. Well at 4 pm after 16 miles we were and these great trail angels fed us sandwiches, smoked cheese, fresh pepperoni and lots of cake. I should have known somethins was up as I approached the vehicle with the license plate that said A T 7. If you say it fast it is 87 and that is when this couple Ruth and Hal better known as Flash and Hotflash on the trail when they hiked completed their thru hike. Ruth had just turned 73 and Hal was 76 so they were the same age as Patty and I when they hiked the trail. They also had two sons and we really enjoyed visiting with them. We left them and had 4 miles to the road crossing that would take us into town to resupply, with the last mile all up hill. We knocked off the last 4 miles in about an hour and 15 minutes and came out to the roadway. As we walked across the road to try to catch a ride into town there was Flash and Hotflash waiting for us. They had sat by the road crossing all day and fed about 10 thru hikers and after they fed us they waited a little longer and then decided to give us a ride into town. They took us to the best motel, let us check in and then gave us a ride to the grocery store and recommended a good place to eat before going on their way. They are true trail angels and I am going to post a picture to show everyone what trail angels look like. We have had many on this trip. Some we see and some we don't, but all of their trail magic is really appreciated. The restaraunt they recommended was a great sea food place called Captain Tim's and we ordered a family style meal where you could eat as much as you wanted. The shark, scallops and shrimp really took a beating. Thanks Hal and Ruth.
On 5-25 we hitched a ride the 9 miles back to where we left off on the trail. The people that gave us a ride were going to the top of the same mountain that we were going to climb and offered to give us a ride to the top, but, we have been true to the "white blazes" and turned them down. We instead did the 3000 foot climb and met them at the top of Cold Mtn. It was a bald and had a beautiful view of the surrounding area. We had lunch at the top of the bald and then came down. There were a lot of people just hiking for the day and also for the weekend. I think we met four different groups of Boyscouts. Coming down from Cold Mtn. we were offered more trail magic by a thru hiker and his wife who offered to cook us burgers, but, we actually turned them down as we had just eaten. We had a nice visit and drank a soda with them.
We did a short day of 13.2 miles on 5-26 as the temps climbed into the 80's and we had a huge climb if we were going to go on any further.
On 5-27 we started the day with a 3 mile climb where we gained 3500 feet, met a section hikers wife at 11:00 that had camped near us the night before and enjoyed some fresh fruit and a cold drink, had lunch with a bear, (see photo) and completed our longest day yet at 22.4 miles, and to top it off I slipt as I was crossing the creek to our tent site below the shelter and washed my socks, shorts, and shirt while I was still wearing them. It was a great day.
Today 5-28, I already explained how we made our way into town.
We were going to take a day off tomorrow, but the weather is supposed to be nice and we are really looking at getting into Shenandoah Nat. Park. We may not get a real early start, but we will probably enter the park sometime tomorrow. We are looking forward to this as the trail follows the BRP and there are a lot of campgrounds, restaraunts, and stores along the way so we are only going to carry about 3 days worth of food for the 5-6 day trip. We still plan on eating good without having to carry all the weight. We also have heard the trail flattens out a little and there is not quite as much hardner in the trail, (rocks).
I hope no one is checking my spelling too closely as I usually do not even have time to proof it and I have not found a spell check for it yet.
The section hiker we were with the other day did give me some interesting info if anyone wants to try and follow the A.T. and are familiar with Google Earth. He told me that Google Earth has an A.T. trail file. If you go to Google Community and then to the Message Board and type Appalachian Trail into the Search Box it will get you to a K and Z file that you can download. The way he explained it you can pull up the terrain and the location of the shelters for the entire trail. If anyone has any luck with this let me know.
The pictures we will post today include:
1. Picture of the Blue Ridge Parkway
2. Picture of me writing in the journal of the Bryant Ridge Shelter
3. Trail Angels, Flash and Hotflash
4. Patty @ an overlook by Cedar Cliffs
5. BoBo joining us for lunch
We are still having fun!!!
Until next time
Red Dog and Lucky Dog
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