Day 54 - 4/24

Daily mileage: 20.1
Total trail mileage: 696.7 (approx)
Starting location: Niday Shelter
Ending location: Campsite after Catawba Creek
Weather: cloudy all day, a few sprinkles throughout the day, shower in
the late afternoon, 53 degrees in the morning, 55-70 degrees during
the day, breezy

I am at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.362969,+-80.124072

Now I collected my third set of rocks that belong in another state.
The section before and after Dragon's Tooth reminded me of the rocks
in Northern VT. They were big boulders that the trail wound around,
over, and between. There were sections that required hands to get up,
and there were a couple iron rungs. Those are the fun rocks!

The trail leading up to Dragon's Tooth felt like I was climbing the
dragon's scaly back. And this was a dragon with many humps.
Everytime I crested the "last hill" there was another one. Dragon's
Tooth itself was a giant rock formation. Is was fun to climb up it,
and there were pretty cool views. Unfortunately today was cloudy, but
you could still see quite a ways.

I didn't see anyone after leaving the shelter until Dragon's Tooth.
Then there were a million day hikers. A group formed around me and
they were asking me questions as I was trying to eat a Snickers and
prevent sweat from running in my eye. And these weren't the typical
easy questions like "when did you start?" or "are you carrying a
tent?". No, these were questions like "what have you learned?" or
"why?". I did successfully manage to yogi candy bars from them
without meaning to yogi. The topic of trail angels came up. So, I
said, "yea, people have given us all sorts of stuff. Section hikers
will often give us food they don't really want. Basically if someone
offers food, we'll take it." As soon as I said that I realized that it
may sound like asking and sure enough, they started digging through
their bags looking for stuff to give me. Another day hiker asked how
long I have been out and I said that I started Mar 2nd. He said they
started an hour ago.

I got into Farmer Maggot's crops again. This time there were a bunch
of cows lounging on the trail. Everytime I got somewhat near to one,
it stood up and stared at me. Fortunately they didn't move toward me
although I was particularly keeping my eye on the bull.

I am surprised my shoes have lasted this long. A lot of people have
replaced their boots 200 miles ago. Someone said that when he did the
PCT he went through 10 pairs of shoes. But, mine are now finally
showing a number of wear marks and holes, so they probably won't last
too much longer.

I didn't quite hit my goal today. But, I knew before I started that
my target was likely ambitious and I wouldn't make it. So, I am a
couple miles short. Right now I have two plans for tomorrow depending
on the weather. I really would like to see McAfee Knob and Tinker
Cliffs when it is not raining. So, plan 1 is that I get up in the
morning, go eat lunch at the Homeplace Restaurant, visit McAfee Knob,
visit Tinker Cliffs, and stay at the shelter after Tinker Cliffs.
This would be about 13 miles. Plan 2 is to get up, go eat lunch at
the Homeplace Restaurant, and camp at the campsite just past McAfee
Knob. This would be about 7 miles. Monday morning I would get up as
early as possible to hike back to McAfee Knob at sunrise. And plan 3
is...I don't know. Either way, tomorrow is a short day. I am hoping
tonight has thunderstorms to clear some of the moisture out of the air.