Miles 15
Total 1486
Sights: McAfee's Knob
We did a real good job of waking up on time today. 5:15 and we were getting ready packing stuff up. 6:15 rolled along and we were brushing our teeth getting ready to leave when the rain picked up. I watched Jamie go out to brush his teeth in the rain, in the dark, in the cold and I just couldn't do it. He came back in and I told him I couldn't go out there. I pulled my sleeping bag back out and we went to sleep until 7am. I couldn't hand cold, dark AND rain. But cold and rain-that's fine. Anyway, after our late start we ditched our 24 mile plan and downsized to 16. Originally we were going to stay at a donation based hotel on RT 624 but we stopped about a mile short to camp beside this lovely stream. Why, you may ask, are we forgoing a shower and a roof to camp on a potentially rainy night? Well, as you may know, we got a new tent. We figured this was as good a night as any to test it out and besides, after our extra stay in Daleville, it won't kill us to save $10.
Let me say a few words about this hostel we've never been to. According to our shelter mates last night this guy loves hikers and he turned his three car garage into a donation based hiker hostel. Great for us. Not so great for his marriage. Apparently his wife gave him an ultimatum: The hikers or her. The first hiker showed up on April 24-she was gone on the 25th. How crazy is that story?! OK. So we aren't there to corroborate this story-but really I doubt the two scout masters would make it up. In some ways i felt like we should have gone to stay with the guy. He divorced his wife for us. The least we could do is say hello, right? But then again-maybe not. I think our friend Banjo went on to the hostel. We'll ask him about it when his fit and nimble legs carry him past us sometime tomorrow afternoon.
In other news we met some Ninja Cows today. For this scene to make sense you must go to youtube and search "ninja cat." I'd link it for you but i have no internet. You can read the following story without the video, but it will be better if you watch it. i promise.
Often the AT will route us through farmers cow fields. Normally there are no cows to be seen. Today however, we saw the cows off in the distance. As we were coming into the field, Jamie's ankle began to hurt so we sat to relax for a minute in the grass. As we were getting up, we noticed that a few of the cows were now watching us. We thought nothing of it, waved hello, and continued on. As we turned a bend we happened across another hiker, Lorenzo, who told us we were just in time for persimmons and he handed us the tiniest persimmons we'd ever seen. They were the size of cherries! But they tasted just like persimmons and they were delicious. So delicious in fact that Lorenzo climbed the tree to shake a few more down. After freeing all the fruit we scampered around to pick it all up. As we gathered together to count up the fruits I looked to my right and saw that a crowd of cows had gathered to watch us. What was creepy about this was how close they had gotten without us knowing. At this point, i turn to Lorenzo and Jamie and talk about how similar this was to the Ninja Cat Video except this was cows and and there were 15 of them. As i turned back to look at the cows-THEY WERE CLOSER! so hilarious. they continued to creep closer until they were about 10 feet away from us. Ultimately, jamie and I-having just heard a story about a man getting mauled by a cow- decided to leave.
And here we are. Camped out in our new tent by a lovely little stream with the sounds of some strange animal snuffling around our tent. Oh hiking!
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| McAfee Knob |
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| Cheesy pose |
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| Jamie |
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| Shannon |
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| Ninja Cows |
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| Tentsite! |
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