We were definitely warmer in the tent last night than we were in the shelter the night before. As soon as I got up to deal with water (getting rid of and retrieving) I noticed that the guys in the shelter had put a tarp up over the face. When I went up to visit the privy, New York told me they had built a fire in the fireplace and were toasty all night.
New York got his name because of his accent—there’s no mistaking it for a midwest drawl. He sounds a lot like Matt Damon in “Good Will Hunting” or like Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, or Leonardo DiCaprio (take your pick) in “The Departed.” He hammocked with us last night at Rice Field. The funny thing is that he smokes cigarettes rets while hiking and still hikes faster than us. I’ve got to keep reminding myself that it’s not a race to Katahdin (because if it is, we are losing big time).
Since I started reading about the AT, there has been a place in VA that I heard about called “The Captain’s Place”. It’s just a guy that allows hikers to camp in his yard and sells sodas. Nothing special in that, but what is special is that there is a zip line across Stony Creek to get to his place. There’s always a down side to places like this—he permanently closed last year. As we were walking along the creek, I could see his house and yard, but the zip line is gone. Another iconic place along the trail is no more. At least it’s not like McAfee Knob is closed.
We made it to Bailey Gap Shelter for a lunch break. This was where we were supposed to make it to last night, but we had both run out of steam. We are still in the process of trying to overeat to reduce our pack weight (the many trials of long distance hiking) and were eating our third round of food when Mr Bean joined us for lunch. Mr Bean is from Portland, Maine and his dad works in the call center for LL Bean. We told him of our plans to try to make it to the 100 mile wilderness to hike with our friends, Peter and Marcia from Portland who hiked the trail way back before lightweight gear, trail names, and automobiles were invented. They were true hikers unlike the sissies hiking today with all the ultralight this and that.
The trail getting up to Bailey Gap was steep and tiring, but the trail leading out of it was some of the worst we have encountered so far. It was worthy of our expectations for Pennsylvania—all rocky and tiring. If you didn’t watch every step, there was a good chance of you breaking an ankle, or worse, if you fell. It got Bunny’s ire up to the point where she flat out yelled to no one “the next person I meet that tells me ‘Virginia is easy’ is getting slapped.”
Here comes our appeal for money—the next person we saw was a forest service enforcement officer who approached us at a road crossing and asked if we were enjoying the easy trail in Virginia. Bunny is currently off the trail until we can raise the $100,000 bail.
For all you bootheel raised folk, this is where we need to talk about satire, irony, and jokes in general. Bunny did not slap the officer, in fact, there wasn’t even an officer present. I made that up. It’s called a “joke.” Bunny doesn’t strike anyone (other than me); she doesn’t poop in Wal-Mart parking lots; she doesn’t steal things from buffets (she just takes more than she needs at the time). Bunny often takes the brunt of my joke setups, possibly as much as I do. But no one seems bothered when I make fun of myself or even notice when I praise my wife. I do tend to make fun of people I like. If I don’t make fun of you, I probably don’t like you (or Bunny has told me I can’t say that—she is also the editor of the blog). This blog is a representation of what I am feeling at the time of writing and not a factual account of true events that happen along the way. Most of the time, the entries are completely lacking in facts. If actual events do accidentally appear in this blog, perhaps I need to highlight them in some way. From now on, actual facts will be followed by “true dat” to ease confusion from those readers that have never seen any British originating humor.
As we were approaching a wilderness area along the trail, we got a text from Sam that he was on a bus heading to St Louis to complete his physical for military induction. He had received a text from his grandfather that Israel had just declared war on Russia and Syria and that he should get up in front of everyone of the bus and declare that he wanted to get off the bus immediately. In short, he was freaking out. True dat. Bunny started having a panic attack hearing this, but we couldn’t respond to the message because of poor cell service. We thought WW III had started. Bunny’s response was to immediately quit the trail and get home to her son. True dat. I assured her, if war had broken out, Sam was safest having already been signed up for a non-infantry position (as we had agreed this past weekend).
By the time we got to a spot where we could get signal and Bunny could talk to her son, the situation had calmed down. Apparently, the original story that was relayed to Sam was a possible scenario of events and we were not actually at war. Sam had not stood up in front of the bus and declared himself a coward, but his stress level was very high so his heart rate did not calm down to the point where they would accept him until he had and EKG. Sam was safe, Bunny was calm, and there is no world war, but Trump is still president. I keep hoping that we wake up from our dream (like Pam on “Dallas” when she only dreamt Bobby was dead) to find out we have someone stable as president, like Weird Al Yankovich. True dat.
Mr Bean was already at War Spur Shelter when we got there, along with Tortoise and Easy Pete (there’s always a Pete or Peter around us on every trip, true dat). Easy Pete told us that there was a forest fire around McAfee Knob and that the trail has been closed. The ATC has been shuttling hikers around the area. He read about it on the facebook page for 2018 thru hikers—it was on the internet, it must be true. Let’s recap; the Captain’s Place is closed, Trump is President, and the most iconic spot on the AT (McAfee Knob) is closed to thru hikers—Pamela Ewing, wake up now!
EFG
Glad to see the blog back and running…you had me worried there for a minute.
Who is Mr Bean in real life? I probably know him, since we work in the same building. Is he thru-hiking? Is he a retiree?
And you are right – there is always a Peter or Pete. We have three Petes on most of our winter yurt trips. There’s always at least one of us.
It’s Mr Bean’s dad that works there. If we run into him again, I’ll get his name.
Right – I missed that the first time. I’ll bet his father’s name is Paul Abramowitz. He’s told me about his son hiking the trail.
Glad you are back and in form again. We went rock hunting down at the Minerva Mine yesterday and found some small but nice pieces the state rock. Dan is working on plans for a rail to hold a sliding sunshade for the back porch. I’ve been weeding and planting this morning. I think you and Pam should settle somewhere along the trail and reconstitute one of the iconic places that is no longer there or start your own when you are done with all you’ve got planned and more. Take care!