Stephanie's Trail Journal

June 26th

Beginning Point: Laurel Spring shelter
Ending Point: Audie Murphy Monument
Daily Mileage: 17 Miles
Total Miles: Miles
Weather: Beautiful sunny day!

We went to sleep to the sound of rain last night and awoke to a sunny morning - thank the heavens! I was getting tired of all that rain. We had lofty goals of hiking 22 miles today so that we could have a leisurely stroll the following day in order to get to The Homeplace restaurant before it closed, however, we fell 5 miles short of our goal. Which was just fine with me because my feet and knees were so sore from the rocky trail that I didn't have another five in me.

In the morning we walked through open fields and crossed several stiles. While rounding a turn, Dan noticed something off in the distance and wondered if we had seen it too. Stephan and I didn't see what caught his eye, so Dan said it looked like a statue of the Virgin Mary. Stephan and I exchanged quizzical looks, and then Dan started laughing because he realized that what he mistook for a religious icon was actually a power line tower shaped like a V with a cross bar on top. I should also tell you that Dan doesn't see so well without his glasses and usually doesn't wear them due to fogging.

We had a big lunch at Sarver Hollow Shelter, one of the nicest shelters we've seen in VA complete with a covered eating area and a shelter-cat! We aren't sure how the cat got there; she seemed very domesticated and dependent upon humans for food acquisition. Judging from the shelter log, Tigger had been there for almost the entire month of June and hasn't seen any reason to leave. And why should she? Everyone who visits the shelter makes sure she ate a portion of their meal - jeez, Dan gave her most of his tuna pouch, the kind packed in sunflower oil. Then she had some of my tuna, and some ramen noodle soup. She was a very friendly cat, so hopefully someone in the area will claim her and give her a home. Oh, and by the way, we weren't sure that Tigger was a girl, we just read the shelter log to find out what folks were calling her. Then Stephan felt her up and ascertained that Tigger was indeed a girl - poor kitty.

Late in the day we had a big climb, over 1500 feet which used to be nothing in the more southern states, but we haven't had a lot of those lately. It was well-graded with plenty of switchbacks, and the late day sun cast a golden hue over the pine needles that covered the treadway. It took me a while to make the climb - my feet hurt more than my knees - and near the top I took off my boots and hiked in my crocs. We planned on having dinner at the Audie Murphy Monument and then hiking on to the next shelter, but as I've mentioned, plans changed. The Monument was interesting; apparently Audie Murphy was the most decorated veteran of world war II. He died in a plane crash near Brush Mountain, where the monument was later placed. Stephan and I dined on Lipton's Alfredo Broccoli noodles with tyson's chicken. Dan bought an 8x10 ft tarp to go over his hennessy hammock; fortunately it was large enough to accommodate the three of us (since we still don't have Stephan's tent - 2 more days to pick it up in Troutville).

Stephanie

Posted by steph at June 30, 2004 06:06 AM