May 2 & 3 - 18.5 / 664.2 & 22.5 / 686.7

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford had a brilliant idea when he said that he was hiking the Appalachian Trail and therefore could not be reach via cell. (Disclaimer - In no way am I condoning his actions of an affair.) If he really wanted to get away all he had to do is walk in Virginia. I swear this state does not have cell service yet. The grad students I met the other night said the western part of Virginia does not have cell service and a lot of the area doesn't even have radio stations. I will say though, the true cell phone battle has been fought and won by Verizon. Verizon puts AT&T to shame. All the AT&T folks have complained about not getting cell service since we started. I know they didn't get service in Erwin and Damascus either. Those are towns and not even the trail.

Aside from a lack of cell service, I am still hiking. I am going to combine the last two days because I was too tired to write anything last night.

May 2...
Yesterday morning I woke up, made breakfast, and finished getting my stuff packed. I didn't see SB or DM that whole time. As the rest of us left the shelter area, we walked past their tent, and they were still in it. It was almost 9 too. We made sure they were awake and told them we were heading out. We figured they would catch up later in the day.

Overall the hiking was fairly the same of ridge walking over rocks. I can't wait to see PA which is known for rocks. Throughout the day I kept passing people from Canada. Turns out it is an outdoor recreation class that has traveled down here to hike a few days. Part of the class is planning a trip and then following through with it at the end of the semester. We passed most of them around Wind Rock, but we still stopped and answered a fair share of questions. Around 2, the three of us as well as TP, Samurai, and Donner made it to War Spur Shelter for lunch. The three of us planned on 12.5 more miles to another shelter to end the day. However, we didn't follow through with those plans. To begin, it was too humid and too hot to go anywhere. So we decided we would rest a little long. Well, that turned into SR taking a nap in the grass. Samurai and I threw around a frisbee. He played ultimate in high and college so we had been talking about ultimate the last few days. TW, TP, and Donner just sat. Samurai and TP eventually got motivated and left. Right after that the Canadians began to roll into the shelter. Yes! Another excuse for us not to leave. So the four of us that remained talked with them for about an hour. I think we ended up staying at the shelter for almost three hours. That also meant we didn't hike the remaining 12.5 miles we had planned.

We ended up making it 5.8 miles to the Laurel Creek Shelter. I was the first to roll in. As I did, Prime Minister came out of the woods boasting about the "secret shower." It was all in the shelter's trail log. I waited for TW and SR. With Prime Minister's directions on how to get there, the three of us, TP, and Samarai headed out to find the shower. After climbing over some large boulders, through brush, and over rotted out trees we made it to the creek where the shower was to be located. However, we didn't find it. Running out of day light, we all headed back through the crap we already walked over. I was dirtier, hotter, and more tired than when I started going down toward the shower. SR was the first to make it back to camp. I was almost back when I saw him and PM walking toward me. PM was going to show him where it was. Pissed off, I just went back to camp. TW and SR followed PM down there. The "secret shower" ended up being a waterfall that one was able to stand under. It might have been nice, but I was content just washing off in the creek closer to camp.

I ended my day with dinner and a beer. That's right, a beer. I scored it as part of some trail magic. It was just sitting on the railing of a bridge. At first I was a little hesitant to take it, but as I was examming it, two girls who were just shy of the bridge yelled and said it was trail magic. Instantly it went I'm my pack for dinner. I cooled it off in the creek before dinner to make it drinkable. It was a Magic Hat lager and was well worth carrying.

Oh yeah, I will say yesterday was the day of falling limbs and trees. While at the shelter for lunch, I saw a handful of good size limbs just fall from 30 or 40 feet up. We joked with the Canadians by telling them to put the students they don't like over in that area. PM also said he saw a 20 or so foot tree just fall beside him. Crazy.

May 3...
SB and DM never made it into camp last night. Others behind us saw them hiking so we assumed they stopped a shelter earlier. I hope they aren't losing their motivation to be out here. They say 50% quit in Damascus. Of the remaining number, 50% quit while in VA as the get the "Virginia Blues." of you can get through VA, then they say you have about 80% chance of finishing. I better be in that 80%.

Today was nothing too new. I did hike past the second largest tree (largest on the southern part of the AT) on the trail. It is called Keffer Oak and assumed to be over 300 years old. When last measured, its girth was 18 feet 3 inches.

I also left a gentleman by the name of Thomas my blog. I met him last night at the shelter. He is out section hiking for a few days. He was pleasant to speak with, and I wish him the best in completing VA. I also recommended for him to get the same tent I have. If anyone is looking for a good one person tent, then I recommend the Big Agnes Seedhouse SL1. Thomas, if you get a chance to read this, then good luck too you and perhaps we'll see you in another part trail in the future.

Other than that, it was a long 22.5 miles. Tomorrow we plan to get up earlier and get the miles out of the way. We have a few well known spots for VA that we plan to hike by: Dragons Tooth, McAfee Knob, and Tinker Cliffs. Therefore, I am heading to bed.

Have a good one.