5/4 Flowers in the mist

25.6 miles hiked today, 751.1 miles N
Cornelius Creek Shelter

I spent the day mostly in mist. The trail ran along the Blue Ridge Parkway, a road with scenic turnoffs every few miles. I cross the road at several of these and it was always scary because I couldn't see father than 50'. The cars were moving very fast and so they almost appeared at the same time I could hear them. The outlooks were all fogged up so no one was stopping along the way.
The result of this viewless day was I focused largely on the flowers which were blooming abundance. There was rohdodendum, lily, trillium, mountain laurel, and trees with white buds which I think are dogwood.
I am feeling much stronger after my two day rest and longer days are getting much easier. I think that 25 miles is now a sustainable distance as I don't feel at all stressed at the end of it. Bowser seems to be the same as he kept up with pace just fine.
Now that I have eaten a days food my pack is fitting my load a lot better. I think the first days out of towns will just be rough with this pack being filled to the gills but after that it is a real dream.

5/3 Another rainy start

11.3 miles hiked today, 725.5 miles N
Wilson Creek Shelter

Today was a late start. I got up early but had to wait in town until 12:30 for new shoes to arrive via UPS. While I waited I picked up some spinach and a lemon cake for lunch.
I made it to the trail by 1 PM. It was raining out and did so the rest of the day just like Pearisburg. :P
The first stretch was a couple miles in the middle of two busy highways. Although the noise was present the trail managed to visually isolate me very well. After that busy stretch the trail move among rolling hills that in the past were home to iron furnaces. I slogged through the weather making OK time and not getting too wet. One lesson I learned was that water be it rain or sweat tended to pool in the inside of elbows of my jacket. If I didn't want wet shirt I needed to make sure to drain it out the hand holes before reaching up to adjust my hat.
In the past two days a lot of flowers have started blooming. The rhododendron have fusha colored flowers that are budding in mass. There are other flowers that look like 3mm wide light pink maces as a bud bloom into bowls with 5 points along the rim.
I rolled into the shelter for tonight around 5:30 P.M. and saw no need to push on. It isdry and Bowser and Wing Heart are here. I am enjoying relaxing tonight and getting to sleep early will hopefully help my day tomorrow.

5/2 Another zero in town

0 miles today, 714.3 miles N
Comfort Inn/Daleville, VA

Today I took another zero to take care of more business and let my legs rest a little more. I could have rushed to get everything done this morning but I decided to slow down and relax. I needed to send out a lot of mail for future resupply and a bounce box. Also I am getting used to a new backpack I purchased, the ULA Conduit, which is much much smaller than my old one. I finished a book and caught up on the phone with my family. Bowser and I are sharing a room tonight, McGyver is pushing on to catch his family who is meeting him in 3 days. Tomorrow all I have to do is wait for a new pair of shoes to arrive that I ordered last week and then it is back to the trail for me.

5/1 Zero in town

0 miles today, 714.3 miles N
Comfort Inn/Daleville, VA

Today was spent relaxing and resupplying. I got a call in the morning from McGyver saying they were about 4 miles out of town so we all are sharing a room and have spent the day mostly eating.
Because my stove boils water quickly but has no simmer it is hard to cook some meals. As a result I built a new stove with a couple V-8 cans and my pocket knife. This one produces less heat and will hopefully only heat my food enough to simmer. It seems to work pretty well though I want to test it out on the trail.
Also I got care packages from my awesome friends Booke, Allison, and Marjorie. Thank you all so much. You rock. I am really enjoying the tasty treats.

4/30 Lots to see

18.8 miles today, 714.3 miles N
Comfort Inn/Troutdale

Today I hiked fast. I was mostly out of food and knew from the Shelter register that Snackbreak was only a mile ahead and I though I would try to catch up and say hi. In the end that didn't happen. The day started with a climb to McAfee Knob, a cliff with a great view to the west. At the next shelter I read that there was quite a party up there with Backbend, Snackbreak, and Dirty Blond enjoying the sunset and a bottle of wine. I wish I could have been there as the view must have been stunning. The cliff from the morning sun was still a sight to behold. It is worth a day trip with 3.5 miles of wide and easy trail from the road that has been beaten in by the locals. As soon as I passed the knob the trail became way narrower from the substantially less use. It meandered along the cliff line going down 800' before climbing back up to Tinker Cliffs. What makes Tinker Cliffs so cool is that it is like the McAffe Knob but for 1/2 mile. The trail runs right along and over the cliff overhangs causing one to be torn between enjoying the view and watching their foot step. From Dragons Tooth yesterday to the cliffs it has been some of the best hiking along the trail thus far. The days have been filled with stunning view points. I am only mad that my camera battery died. Arg! Anyhow it was gorgeous and that just means anyone reading this really needs to make the hike to see for themselves. After that it was a rolling hike along the ridge to get into town. The only issue was it kept rolling and rolling just like yesterday driving me batty. I was so close to town I could hear dogs and car doors but I still had 3 miles to go and easily 1000' feet of elevation change up and down before I started descending. Finally though the trail went downhill and that turned out to be more exciting than planned. First some background.
I went to Glacier NP last year, a Grizzly haven, where everyone but my group saw a bear. Then I went through Smokies NP and still bumpkins when it came to bears! Well while crossing train tracks .6 miles from the road I finally saw a bear on the tracks. It was a black bear adult maybe 6 feet long and 3 feet high. I guess 200-300 lbs. It was waling along the tracks maybe 50 yards away before going into the woods. I was still giddy with excitement seeing the bear and only 1 minute up the trail when I then heard the rattle of a rattler in the grass next to me. I made hast up the trail 20' before looking back. I couldn't spot the snake in the tall grass. Still that was a lot of excitement for 3 minutes. The rest of the hike into town was flat and easy and I found myself to the Comfort Inn for the night. This town has everything one needs to resupply and rest but sidewalks. All my walking thus far has been in the shoulders of the road and darting across busy traffic. I am more worried about getting hit by a truck out here than having my knee giving out on the trail.

4/29 Dragon's Tooth

After yesterdays long and hard day I decided today I would try to sleep in and recover before I did my push. I got out at 10 AM to start my seemingly endless up and down ridge lines. I held a pretty steady pace and focused on not overdoing it though I feel remarkably good. I think elevating my feet last night really helped my recovery AND I think my body is starting to adapt. On the first ridge I came across a small pond maybe 40' across and pitch black with decaying leaves. I went to take a peek into the water and look for what was swimming around it was packed with tadpoles for as far as I could see. I am not talking about a hundreds but more like thousands of tadpoles the made square yards of the pond flutter when my shadow passed over. Being a nut about amphibians I was thought this was awesome. A little later up the trail I came across a memorial for Audie Murphy. From what I gather he was the most decorated solider in WW II along with making a name for himself in western movies. As I was taking pictures of his memorial my camera battery died so no more pictures until I can get a new one. The next ridge line over the mountain was much more rugged and dry and I saw numerous lizards, small tan colored, sunning themselves until I scared them off. The limestone that made up the ridge line became really steep until it was nearly vertical for miles. It was like going over the back of a stegosaurus going back and forth between large flat limestone up thrusts. This culminated with Dragon's Tooth, the largest of these rising at least 30 feet above the rest of the ridge and even over the top the trees. The views afforded were clear and breathtaking showing the two lane highways and rural pastures below. The descent from that point was down the cliff face and was nearly straight down leaping from rocky foot hold to rocky foot hold. At the bottom I bounced up and down 100' feet a time but more so down towards the base of the next ridge where my shelter for tonight was. At this point due the late start I was chasing sunset and the endless up and down nature of the ridge really was a pain. Finally near dark I got to the pass where I started back up hill to my shelter for the night. I worried the weekenders may have filed the shelter but when I arrived it was empty. I realized most weekenders don't hike Sunday nights. It was a very new and nice shelter. In the rafters there is a birds nest. I can see the birds tail feathers sticking out from the next above my head. The water source is sketchy looking and though I was thirsty I am trying to drink very little from it. I will try to hold out for the next water a mile up the trail.

4/28 Longest yet

29 miles today, 672 Mile N
Niday Shelter

Today I got a very early start from Captains place. I was out by 7:15 with the goal of catching up with Bowser before he left the shelter 3 miles ahead. My morning involved crossing the river again by Captain's house. He told me a much easier crossing point and minus cold feet it was an easy crossing. Then a rough stretch of trail to the washed out bridge where I crossed another river. Then up the mountain. I got to the shelter about 8:30 but Bowser was already gone. I found out from south bound hikers that I was only 15 minutes behind. As the day progressed I fell further and further behind. I could tell it was a weekend because the trail had day hikers out, I met at least half a dozen or so.
The morning temps were very cool and the wind chilly and it remained so until after lunch but finally it warmed up in the afternoon. At 4 o'clock I finally caught up with Bowser who had napped at a shelter. He decided to make a short day and I decided I was going to go long so we only spent a hour together in total with Greybeard who also was staying for the night. Greybeard and I hit off great as we both work in IT and shared many similar backgrounds. We talked about obscure mainframe technologies and the practice of tech support probably boring the heck out of Bowser.
In the end I still had 12 miles to go and so at 5P.M. I set of with. I had to descend, climb, and descend more ridgelines in the next 12 miles and I wanted to finished the bulk of it before dark. The initial decent took me through a mile or two of rolling idyllic pastures where I saw cows, horses, and a pony grazing. Something I have also noticed is that song birds really like the edge of meadows. Every meadow I have been to in the last two weeks seems to be rimmed with bird song. It is very nice.
Going through this meadow/valley I couldn't help but noticed that the houses seemed to be often in states of decay. I saw a house that I had very recently burnt down so the half of it was simply missing. Another old house had decayed to simply a chimmy stack. Yet another log cabin was in the woods with a collapsed roof and so on.
The climb out of the valley and took only an hour or so. On the top the ridge was packed with life. There were birds, about the size of baseballs with orange bellies everywhere trying their best to get lucky for the night. I came across five deer grazing along the trail and a very started squirrel who I had managed to sneak up upon.
I got to the end of my ridge walk which seemed to alternate from easy to tough. Some parts were rock free as in someone had actually picked up all the rocks and put them in piles along the ridge!? Other parts where walking on hard slanted limestone. Fortunately I got the final decent just as it was getting dark. It still took me an hour and half to get down to the shelter since the slope down was rather steep and treacherous. My altimeter was out of calibration and I didn't expect to see the shelter for another 200 feet so when I found the shelter it was more out of luck then anything else. I knew it was near a creek and I thought I heard one and looked around. To my right was the shelter. I didn't initially see it though. I did notice that there was a horizontal line in the woods and to my surprise when I got closed I saw this was the edge of the roof. Luck find for me.
In the end I was hiking for 14 hours and did 29 miles, my longest day yet. Road Dog was there and he didn't mind my making a ruckus as I set up camp. He turned out to be a very nice companion for the night. He is an AT sectioner heading south.