Monthly Archives: May 2013

To Catch A Movie

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When I was sitting in the lobby of the HoJo in Daleville, I did a little bit of research on the upcoming section of trail, and discovered that there was a movie theater in Buchanan (pronounced bug-CAN-non, as in an inefficient way to kill blackflies). I decided instantly that I was going to get there to see a movie, and announced this intention to Medicine Man and Kudo. Jennings Creek, the road crossing nearest this fabled city, was just ten miles from Bobblet’s Gap shelter, and I told Coolie that night (where I last left off) that it was my intention to see a movie the very next night. Iron Man 3, if possible, since it had just come out. A little research in the morning revealed that this particular theater did only one showing a night and the only movie playing was The Croods. Well, that’d be better than no movie, so I just needed to figure out a way to get to town by 7:30. Awol’s Guide said that Middle Creek Campground, just a couple of miles east of the trail, could run shuttles, so as long as they could run a shuttle at seven I’d be golden.

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Neros on the Rocks with a Splash of Water

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When I last posted, Copper had just completed his first supravigintal day, and I was tented on a cant on a tangle of shrubs just out of the wind. I woke up late the next morning, of course, having been up until 2am, and by the time I packed up the next morning, all of the folks I’d left 8 mi. back at Niday Shelter had passed me. It would seem that my extra walking in the night hadn’t bought me anything, but the truth is, I can’t imagine getting up early enough to walk 18 miles by 4:30pm, but I only had ten miles to go on fresh legs.
Halfway down the hill I was stopped by a random guy who was interviewing everyone that came down that hill, collecting trail names, hometowns, start points, etc. for some video blog thing. I was still too sleepy to remember to give the address of this blog, but if anyone finds out where he posted that video, leave a comment here and I’ll see if I can get a link back here on it.
From there, it was down to the creek where Copper got his first good drink in half a day (because there was no water up on the ridge) then a climb back up over Cove Mountain en route to Dragon’s Tooth.

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Trail Days Accident

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I have the next post almost written, but it won’t be up until tomorrow night, and then probably another will go up the day after, but I just wanted to collect some materials here about the events at Trail Days. I wasn’t there and I don’t know whether I have met anyone who was involved because there is no public list of names, but here is what I’ve found:

Clever Girl comments on the events and gives a link to the AP report:
http://trailkit.blogspot.com/2013/05/trail-days-accident.html

The police radio calls immediately following the accident:

An eye witness account:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS79bD_jLko&feature=youtube_gdata_player

This is where followup information will appear about how to donate to the medical funds of the injured lacking insurance (as many hikers do):
http://traildays.us/

Roanoke

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Problems with the VPS again, so I haven’t had a chance to write up the latest post yet. Give me a couple more days. Here’s a poem I wrote to tide you over until I get it done…

How does a person row an oak?
It seems rather plain to me.
My answer, of course, is only a joke.
I don’t like to waste a tree.

First you cut all its branches off
Then carve one into an oar.
Then you push it onto its side
And roll it down the shore.

Then whereupon you get it afloat
You must sit upon it a-straddle
Aim it downriver towards Roanoke
And blister your hands with your paddle.

Then, once you’re riding upon a downed tree,
You might want to see Botetourt.
There’s rivers and creeks all through the county
And now you have a boat to tour it.

Update: seems they’ve come up with some kind of workaround and the website should stay up from now on. Post coming sometime in next couple of days.

Expectations Annihilated Part 2: Woods Hole and Late Nights

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When I left off, I was slacking into Pearisburg from Woods Hole. It was only ten miles and without a pack, I soon blew past Meadow Flapjack and Hufflepuff. Javaman was probably right on our heels, but he (and Dundee and MuFf and Puff) passed me when I stopped to read the logs at Doc’s Knob Shelter and I never saw him again until town. Doc’s Knob is the only shelter I’ve seen with an Adirondack chair:

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I also found an interesting graffito:

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Expectations Annihilated

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Sorry this post was so long in coming. I’ve actually been in Pearisburg for almost 29 hours now, as I was informed upon reaching cell service land that my website was down. Well, it took most of a zero day and three support tickets to get it working again, but I think everything is back to normal now. “Now” is the middle of the night, and it looks like I’m going to have a very late one getting this written and an early morning washing clothes and a dog tomorrow.

When I uploaded the last post, I was sitting at The Barn in Atkins, finishing my lunch. I left there and moved quick trying to make it fifteen miles before the rain. It was pretty warm out, but we stopped only long enough to get a picture of this privy and torn-down shelter marking the approximate spot 1/4 of the way from Springer to Katahdin.
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