May 1 - 18.8 / 645.7

I think I counted 13 trains go by, by the time I left camp this morning. Eight or nine of those came during the night too.

This morning I woke up shocked. Normally, Sky Rocket is one of the last to get up and eat breakfast. Today he was the first, and I think I rolled over, while still in my sleeping bag, and saw him making breakfast by 6:30. I even went back to sleep until I woke up to him banging something in his hands and saying, "breakfast." I laughed as I realized he was making pancakes and bacon for us. He has bought a pizza pan (or something of that sort) at Wal-Mart and was using that to cook the pancakes on. The bacon was the precooked bacon and just needed a little heating up. I will say I was quite impressed and everything tasted delicious.

I was actually the last one to leave camp this morning which is also rare. I ended up getting a good size blister on my left small toe yesterday. So this morning I popped it and did a little surgery (i.e. tape and hydropel). I try to take a picture if I get another one. Overall my feet are holding up well, but I am getting some new blisters and calus (sp?) as my feet are still adjusting to my trail runners. I do like the trail runners a lot more than my boots. I do have to be more careful with less ankle support though.

I wasn't a mile or two into my hike when I came across DM sitting on the side of the trail. She was the first one to leave too. She said everything was ok. She just wanted to take a break and was probably going to call her mom and eat peanut butter. I then passed TW and eventually caught up to SB. I then got that feeling that we weren't going to make it as far as we had discussed before we all left. The plan was 23 miles to the third shelter.

I made it to the first shelter. I wish we had been able to get out of town sooner than we did and had made it to the Rice Field Shelter last night. The shelter was on the top of a ridge and over looked a field and valley below. Many people had told us the sunset was great from up there. I guess I'll just have to live with the view during the day.

I went and got water while waiting for the others to make it in. The trek took me around 30 minutes to walk down a side trail, slowly fill up my water bucket, and walk back to the shelter. Eventually all five of us made it in. I had a quick snack and planned to eat a few miles down the trail. We had only put in a little less than seven miles. While we were there this lady, her husband, and he dog showed up. I think it took her a good five minutes to climb over some wooden steps which went over a barb wire fence in order to get to the shelter. Once she completed that amazing task (insert sarcasm) the flood gate of noise started to come out of her mouth. I don't even think she took a breathe. She just kept talking and talking and talking. Her husband didn't say one word. I knew I had to get out of there so I packed up my food as quick as I could and left.

The rest of the day was mostly walking a rocky ridge line. Again, I feel that all VA has is rocks. That is what PA is supposed to be known for, not VA. I leap frogged with Prime Minister and Samurai for most of the afternoon. PM told us that Sonic (one of the other hikers who stayed at Woods Hole a few nights ago) had gone to see a doctor in Pearisburg. Ends up that he had a case of bacterial giardia. We kept telling him that is what he had. That is a result of not filtering/treating his water. Giardia is no fun and could easily sideline a hiker for a few weeks if not the entire trip.

I got in the zone late in the day and pushed on to the second shelter of the day. I passed the VA Tech guys who stayed a few hundred yards up the trail from us last night. I got to the shelter and decided to start making dinner before the others arrived. I still had that feeling we weren't hiking the 4 more miles to the third shelter. Dinner was about done when out of no where we got an afternoon downpour. I grabbed my stuff and ducked into the shelter. As I was eating, TW and SR rolled in about an hour after I arrived. Neither of them wanted to hike on. Then DM and SB walked in. Neither of them wanted to go on either. So good call on my part for starting dinner and actually stopping at the second shelter. I could have gone on after dinner, but a part of me was perfectly content with stopping here for the day.

Also here are the VA Tech students, Wizard (new), TP (new), Samurai, Prime Minister, Donner, and some VA Tech grad students. I spoke with the grad students for a little bit this evening. They were cool and a pleasure to hang out with. I might try to pass on my blog to them in the morning.

The Kirks, thanks for the update on DS. I am sorry that I wasn't able to join yall in Bastain. I will see yall some time again, if not on the trail.

M.E., I got your message. Thanks and thanks for letting Randolph say I was "on the mountain." I look forward to seeing yall in a few weeks. Everyone has recommended the Homeplace Rest., but we will be going through Catawba when it is closed.

All, give someone a hug even if they don't like hugs. Hugs are good.

B-Rock (as DM says every once and a while)