5/23/01
Finally, a cool crisp clear morning. And the whole day today was beautiful with clear blue skies and moderately cool temperatures. I got an early start, leaving behind a shelter full of sleeping hikers as we were packed in so tight last night I couldn't sleep well. The day featured a lot of descending and not much up, so I was able to cover the miles at a pretty swift pace. I had an early lunch at Matt's creek shelter after a morning wading my way through thousands of dangling caterpillars. For about a thirty mile stretch the caterpillars have been so thick it's as if a plague was cast here. These are the terribly destructive gypsy moth larvae and they have been shredding millions of leaves off the newly foliated hardwoods in the forest. At first I thought the layer of fresh green leaves covering the trail was the work of hail, but soon realized that the caterpillars were doing the destruction. The National Park Service and State Forestry agents are trying to eradicate this terrible beast but it was obvious that this area is taking a beating. After lunch I crossed the flooding James River on a brand new footbridge built specifically for the AT. At 678' it was the lowest elevation thus far on the entire journey. I arrived early (2:30 p.m.) at the Johns Hollow shelter and decided to stop for the day since the trail ascends 2200' just past the shelter. I met Sundial, a thru-hiker who started a week earlier than me but took some time off to go back to Bethesda, Maryland for a few days. He and I spent the afternoon drying out and I actually took a short nap as I was very tired after a poor night's sleep last night. Diablo arrived and Old Ebb, who I had not met but had seen his entries in trail registers, arrived. Later a large group of youths from Discovery School arrived and set up two group tarps behind the shelter. Since there were only four of us, I decided to shelter to get an early start tomorrow even though I prefer to tent camp. I had a snake incident today. A large black racer crossed just in front of me near Matt's Creek and he was moving so fast I couldn't possibly catch up to him if I had tried. We had a relaxing afternoon and evening and spent some time talking about thru-hiking experiences with two late comers who were section hiking as well as the group from the Discovery School. It was early to bed to catch up on much needed sleep and to prepare for the early climb tomorrow morning. Today's stats; low 45 degrees, high 65. Sunny! Finally! Today's mileage: 16.2; cumulative 767.6.
