May 24-25 in central VA

May 24, 2005 | Day 58 | Miles: 13.6 | Total Miles: 695.7
End: Johns Spring Shelter
Danielle:
Overcast with some rain in the afternoon
Snowman had a rough morning this morning--he walked straight into a tree that had fallen just over the trail. He has a wonderful egg on his head. Poor thing. But we did have a nice morning other than that. We went up to Dragon's Tooth, a really neat rock formation that Ryan felt the need to climb up and out upon. He said the views were very cool but I was content just taking his photo :-)
Then we went down through this gap with tons of blooming rhododendrons. Gorgeous!
We had about 7m to a road crossing where we hoofed it to a gas station/convenience store. They did have pizza--yum!--so we all sat and ate for a while, then bought food for the next few days. By then it was raining but what can you do but just move on? Always a bummer to move on out of civilization and into the rain though....
And then there were the cows, as we wandered through some pastures. What do you do when there are cows on the trail? Are they scared of you? Or will they charge you? We had two cow stand-offs today. One was with a whole herd of cows that we eventually skirted around by going through the grass. The second was with a curious little calf who just stood there staring at us and sniffing the air wondering what the hell we were. Quite cute actually, except that he didn't move for about 5 minutes. Then he got spooked as we tried to sneak around him, and ran off to his mama. :-)
Bravo caught up with us last night after a 28-mile day, and he's here again tonight. It's good to see him, but we plan to split the miles between here and Daleville into 2 days so he'll get ahead again :-) Oh well. That's just how the trail goes.

Ryan:
cloudy am, pm rain
ok, so today i walked into a tree head first. i have a very large lump on my melon. grumble, grumble.
ok, moving on. we hiked to dragon's tooth...very awesome. the perfect remedy for someone with a bit of headache. i climbed to the top...mom, don't look at the photos. hit a store for lunch...complete with pizza, a 24 oz miller lite in a rusty wallace commemorative can and grouchy ladies. while purchasing the aforementioned miller lite, grouchy lady #3 informed me, "ya can't drink that outside." "i won't drink it here, but i will be outside when i drink it." she was not amused. here's a riddle: we slept in the shelter last night, but the rainfly of our tent was soaked. how did this happen? well, i'll tell you. ox is a moron. he sent his tent home and after arriving late to a full shelter was a little concerned with the impending deluge. so, he asked to borrow our tent. the idea of schlepping a wet tent was not pleasant, so i offered him the rainfly and suggest he sleep under the picnic table. which he did. he stayed dry. i carried a wet rainfly. today, i strongly suggested he at least purchase a tarp. short day tomorrow!

May 25, 2005 | Day 59 | Miles: 9.4 | Total Miles: 705.1
End: Lamberts Meadow Shelter
Danielle:
Cool, windy and overcast
Since we only had a short day today, we didn't rush to get up and had breakfast in our sleeping bags :-) We got out of camp around 9:10am and headed up to McAfee Knob, a spot a lot of people have raved about. It's a gorgeous rock outcropping with about a 200-degree view out into the valleys below and the hills in the distance. Really nice. Unfortunately it was really windy so we didn't hang out for too long, but long enough to enjoy the vista.
Then as an added bonus for the day we went over Tinker Cliffs, where the AT follows the cliffline for about a half-mile. Again, great vistas but windy! Brrrr. Still, we were really glad they routed the trail right along the cliffs. It was great.
We got into the shelter about 1:30pm and are currently hanging out with Hairball and Snowbunny, who are on the same "slacker" plan as us for these two days :-), as well as Hot Flash, who is getting off the trail for good this year tomorrow. She is a really nice woman, but has some things she feels she needs to do off the trail, so this is it for her. Still, for a grandmother, she's done over 700 miles--very impressive! Hairball and Snowman are off collecting firewood for a huge bonfire tonight. Should be nice :-)

Ryan:
mix of sun and clouds, cool, breezy
to recap: feet very sore, almost bruised. large egg on head. crotch on fire. other than that today rocked. great views from mcafee's knob and tinker cliffs, and it was short. we were in camp by 1:30. magical. we also crossed over 700 miles today. still moving along. we're already planning for the shenandoahs and looking at harpers ferry. that's halfway...um, holy crap.