TRAIL DAY 62
Fri, Apr 22, 2016 It was a rainy day. Pack up, even up with Paul and head to MOJO’S Trailside Café and Coffee actually on the Appalachian Trail. I’d eat there bid farewell to the owner, thank him for his hospitality and head north. Sweet Kazi had offered to have me call as I ventured onward if I needed a ride anywhere. Such was the spirit of the trail and all the trail-friendly towns along the way. I had thanked her kindly but knew that the north would call me into new experiences, new adventures and new friendly gestures – but I would never forget her and her daughter and the more-than-usual connection we were privileged to make and share together. She gave me a great deal of her day making my birthday offering and presenting it to me – a perfect stranger, were it not for Zoe and Theo. I pray I have within me a fraction of the kindness and goodness she brought to a homeless hiker. Would I ever do as much? Is it just part of the feminine heart? My dear wife has it in spades. I am learning more and more about the nurturing and giving depth of the feminine soul.
How blessed we are in all creation.
I left town along an extension of the path to MOJO’S down Douglas Drive which hugged Laurel Creek. The path to MOJO’S had crossed this creek before it turned eastward. In less than a mile, the trail left civilization and headed up Iron Mountain northbound. It was near noon. As El-Tejano passed me, we both said we were heading to Saunders Shelter 8.5 miles in.
It was an uuuuup > dooowwwwn > uuuuup > blip > blip > doown day with the blip > blip > doown coming after the shelter. It was an overcast and cloudy-rainy day showing off brilliant foliage colors in an otherwise grey-out world.
A trail maintainer had opted to protect a tree not far from a stream from an eager beaver.
When I got to the (0.2W) turnoff for the shelter, I opted to put the (0.4W/E) round-trip mileage in northbound instead and headed for a “Pond, campsite” AWOL noted 3.2 miles farther on. The description was inviting and promised the critical water source. I was a little concerned that El-Tejano would wonder where I was since he had gone ahead of me and was most likely at the shelter.
Our introduction to Virginia hiking in 2016 was rain. May was not far ahead and it would prove to be the wettest May in Virginia history. Theo took the rain in stride and so did one of the five trail maintenance organizations in Virginia which posted alternate routes for a bridge on the trail being washed out.
In due course, through the trees I saw a tent and smoke rising nearby. I was at the campsite. Two ladies were outside sitting by their fire. I took a picture of their campsite from near mine. Down a knoll was the pond which emptied through a gully across which were a guy and gal with a tarp-and-rope set up and another fire. To the left along the elevated shore of the pond was another tent belonging to a 20s-something male hiker. I set up my tent between him and the gully. The fellow at the tarp came over and said, “Hello” and that they were just out for a short hike. I never had conversation with the fellow next to me. He pretty much stayed in his tent.
Before supper, I went for water far up into the woods beyond a somewhat level bog with a shallow surface of water that fed the pond in a rapid flow through a wide pipe going under the trail. I was in search of the out-of-the-ground source uphill from the pond. I found satisfactory water I didn’t need to filter.
My gravity-feed water filter had been through many freezes which would have rendered it useless had I used it. Ice crystals inside would have destroyed the filter. Once used, you had to keep it near your body in cold weather, night or day. Freezing was now past but happily springs were not.
Rehydrated for the night at least, I set about making supper between my tent and the tented fellow next to me. My rain gear and down jacket were scattered about airing out during a respite from precipitation. The ground was pretty wet so I sat on a plastic bag to cook. I hadn’t yet enlisted my new, yellow bear bag for this purpose. A video tells me I had Mountain House Pasta Primavera for supper, one of my purchases at Mount Rogers Outfitters.
Clean-up and evening chores saw me to my tent. Theo and I snuggled in nice and cozy and then we heard the spring peepers from the pond trying to outdo each other. The strength of their chorus was indicative of the turn of weather to come. The more fresh water, the more they want to mate, the more they call. Rain aggravates their mating instincts. I was very glad for my earplugs. “Don’t leave home without ‘em.”
The rain predicted came in the middle of the night. Again, glad for earplugs but also glad the thunder got through. Theo and I were dry as a bone in our tidy two-walled home. I must not be alone in my appreciation of the magnificent, efficient and effective simplicity of the way in which comfort was achieved in otherwise inhospitable weather. In its own way it was every bit as cozy as a cold winter night at home with a blazing fire for which I am well known.
With the heavy rain and thunder the peeps stopped and sleep came sweetly under the heavy pitter patter punctuated by brilliant flashes and the deep, rumbling sounds of nature performing miracles in the mountains. An unforgettable night!
Day #62 Damascus > Pond, campsite 11.7 miles