Thursday, April 26, 2007

4/24 Taking it easy, sorta

14.2 miles hiked today, 613.9 miles N
Doc Knob Shelter

Last night I slept like baby. There were no shelter mice, it was warm, and the waterfall created a environment of white noise where nothing could disturb me. I got started about 9 AM and did the easy hike to Wapiti Shelter of only 6 miles. Along the way I ran into Invisible Man and we hiked the last mile together. We arrived during a drizzle and I took that as an oppertunity to take a long lunch. While rlaxing the shelter filled up with other other lunchers. McGyver arrived and I found out Bowser was taking easy for the sake of his knee and was a ways behind. Together McGyver and I pushed on and fortunatly the rain had decided to stop. Just before we left I got to meet Wingheart and Caveman who I had been reading about in the journals for the last couple weeks. They had stopped in Bland, VA and I had over taken them.
I found out from MyGyver my fears were misplaced and that the church group was very nice and not pushy at all. They had served an awesome breakfast. Oh well. Still I got to keep my schedual and take it easy so I am pretty pleased.
The section from Wapiti Shelter to Doc Knob was among the most challenging trail thus far. It was annoyingly rocky with almost no patchs of safe and easy footing for the whole 8.4 mile distance. Along the way we came across outlooks where the rock hung over the edge of the mountain hanging one over the void and putting us over top of the trees. We took great advantage of these to relax from the trail and soak in the sunny views. I especially like hanging my legs over the edge of the ledges to allow my feet to streach out.
We got to Doc Knob Shelter about an hour before dark. The shelter is located on one of those rocky slopes where a rive runs just below. As a result the ground below is wet but our water source is only 30' away in the bottom of a gap in the rocks. This is a nice change from the rather disant water sources of the last few shelters.

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