Author Archives: quintopia

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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Virginia Highlands: Losing and Regaining

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I am now 370 miles into my hike and have between five and six times that much to go from here, so hurray for being more than 1/6 done! Also, I have my trail legs now and the weather is finally perfect for hiking. I am also about 80 miles into VA and all I can say is: wow. Privies everywhere!

It was 8pm by the time I posted last and headed out of Damascus. It was almost dark, so as soon as the AT crossed the road and went upstairs, I pulled out my headlamp. We probably walked 5 miles before arriving at a stream where another trail crossed and a tiny stony campsite with barely enough space for my tent. I couldn’t stake it out properly, but Comet had said not to expect rain and indeed it was a clear night the whole time we hiked, and the temperatures were perfect. So I left the rainfly off to get the cool air flowing through, put Copper inside, and went right to sleep.
Copper woke me at 3am and I soon heard why. Thunder! Lightning! It was a huge electrical storm. But Copper and Stevie Nicks both seemed to think it would rain, so I stumbled outside barefoot and put the rainfly on. Of course, I couldn’t stake it out right either because of the stones and the fact that I was stumbling around barefoot in the dark while the stakes were inside.

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If You Don’t Stop Blowing Rock, I’ll Kick Your Damascus It’d Be A Boone To Humanity

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When Copper and I got to the car, mom and Renea refused to touch us for fear of catching some dread disease. We first rode to Shady Valley for a delicious pickle from the Country Store then on to Auntie’s Cottage in Damascus, right off the AT.

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Winter Is Going: Summer Springs Early for the Falls

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I may or may not have mentioned this, but Mary at the Mountain Harbour B&B makes the best breakfasts on the AT. Copper needed a day off to recover from his illness, and that was as good excuse as any to get to participate in this smorgasbord two days in a row.

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Humpin’ A Greasy Knob

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The weather and the trail coming away from the Nolichucky and Erwin were both nice, if cold. What with how nice it was, I was surprised to see Pilgrim marching back south saying “I’ve been praying all morning, and I’m ending my hike here. God is telling me my true purpose is providing to trail magic to the other hikers.” I never met him before, but it’s always sad to hear a thru-hiker is quitting.

It was only around 5 miles to the first shelter, and we had no intention of staying there, but the sky opened up and a nice day turned rainy as we climbed the last stretch to it. A large group was there waiting out the rain and eating lunch, including a guy who was crazy enough to be carrying 60 lbs. up the trail, a third his body weight! But the only one who stuck around when it stopped was Crow, a Hawaiian guy who was “taking the day off” by only walking to the first shelter and spending the night there. One interesting thing about this shelter was a hiking challenge inscribed on it with several rules, but the gist being that two hikers sharing a pack must leave no earlier than 5pm from the shelter to go to Rocky’s pizza in Erwin, order 2 large pizzas upon arriving, and bring them and a 12-pack of beer back to the shelter before dark. Clearly a challenge for summertime.

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Snowblazin’

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Clay, who, with his wife Karla, played spades with me and Katfish my last night at Hemlock Hollow, taught me how to make panoramic pictures with my phone that night, so this post will be full of them. Hope they fit on your screens.

I woke up early that next morning and got my coffee and breakfast, settled up, and packed. Around 9:30, I got a free ride to the trailhead. It hadn’t been snowing too long, as there was only around an inch on the ground. For the first couple of miles, the only footprints were those made by me and Copper until we were passed by Zippy and Ditto, who had spent the night at the last shelter before the gap. I caught up to them at Little Laurel Shelter and we chatted over lunch. I told them I’d be pushing on to Jerry Cabin Shelter that night, and they made noises about doing the same. We also discussed the upcoming decision of whether to take the trail along the exposed ridge the AT follows over Fireskald Mountain, or to take the Bad Weather bypass trail because of the snowstorm. I knew I would be staying off that ridge, but apparently I was the only one who avoided it, because I was snowblazing the bad weather trail (or Packgrabber Trail, as it should be called because of all the low-hanging laurels I had to duckwalk under) when I got to it.

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