5/17/01
Another rainy night was the order of business last night. Our mega fire lasted well into the night despite persistent heavy rain. Finally around 4 a.m. I awoke to the smell of a skunk and alerted everyone in the shelter. We never saw the critter, so I'm not sure if he was under the shelter or actually in the shelter for some time. In any case, after we searched the shelter the smell went away so we scared off the smelly beast. It was very foggy this morning and the leaves on the plants along the trail were soaked so we got wet pretty quickly as we forged ahead. The first climb of the day was over the famed Dragon's Tooth, a difficult climb with an even more difficult descent. Normally the view from the rocks at the top is phenomenal, but all Hip and I could see was fog and clouds. Coming down from the top, the trail is steep and treacherous in places. At a particularly bad spot we had to descend down the side of a rock slab that was cliff like. The drop off the side was vertical, so there was no room for error. Hip froze up and couldn't move. He wanted to take his pack off but there was no room to maneuver and it was dangerous to try and remove the pack. I climbed down to help Hip and took his arm to get him through. He was trembling but made it. I was very proud of him for making it through a tough situation despite his fear.
We skipped lunch and hiked the trail to Va. 311 then hiked down a scary stretch of highway to Catawba, Va. Once there, we ate a pint of ice cream and drank a soda despite the fact that in just one hour we would be eating at the Homeplace Restaurant (all you can eat). The Homeplace was fantastic. We ate our fill of fried chicken, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, greenbeans, pinto beans, stewed apples, coleslaw, biscuits, lemonade, peach cobbler, and ice cream. Today we had an abundance of trail magic. When we were descending the Dragon's Tooth, we met Mudpuppy and Woodcutter, two former thru-hikers who were revisiting selected places along the trail. They gave us candy bars and offered to take us from the Homeplace back to the trail later in the day. Then we reached a road crossing where a cooler with sodas, candy bars and homemade brownies and sandwiches was waiting.
The best trail magic thus far on the AT adventure took place while we were outside the general store in Catawba. A woman pulled up to us in her car with Beer Master sitting in the passenger seat. She rolled down her window then proceeded to offer us a ride to her home for the night. She said she would be happy to make homemade lasagna or burgers for us, do our laundry, let us get a shower, and we would have a nice warm bed for the night. Wow! ! It was really tempting to accept such incredible kindness from a total stranger, but we had already gotten excited about eating at The Homeplace. More importantly, we still had 20 miles to hike to Daleville where Creeper is scheduled to meet me tomorrow and we still needed to hike a couple more miles this evening plus get an early start to make it to Daleville at a reasonable time. I politely and reluctantly declined the kind invitation for great trail magic. You might wonder what would motivate a woman alone in her car to offer three strange smelly men into her home. The key is that her daughter was a thru-hiker two years ago so she has an appreciation and understanding for the thru-hiker adventure. We were successful in receiving a ride back to the trail after dinner from Mudpuppy and Woodcutter. We hiked a sluggish two miles to the Catawba Mountain shelter. A brother and sister from Charlottesville, VA are in the shelter with us tonight and we are enjoying a nice fire despite the heavy rain once again. Here are today's stats; low 52 degrees, high 63. Rainy, then cloudy in the afternoon, then rainy tonight. Today's mileage; 13.9; cumulative mileage: 691.7.
