The Magic Bus and Other Misadventures of an Outdoor Nature

More pics, Walmart is so lame that they put a software on the CD that this computer can't read, so I had to create albums on their website. Fortunately that means I don't have to post 20 times to get them online. These are from Georgia and the Smokies. I still haven't figured out the best way to get my 4 gigs of digital pics onto a computer and online. Any suggestions? Remember, I can't download anything onto a library computer, and facebook won't do since non-members (read: our parents and grandparents) won't be able to view them. Plus, if I open my facebook I'll get lost and booted from the library before I have a chance to accomplish anything real.

http://photos.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=130035006/a=90169006_90169006/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

http://photos.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=127839006/a=90169006_90169006/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

Rewind.

We left Hot Springs the day after Jess's birthday, and we spoke about our birthday celebrations in other posts, which were quite excelent. We got separated from the Tribe before even leaving town, as Jess and I wanted to spend some time at the library. 30 miles later we met up with Russ/Dad Rumburg and his brother, Uncle Ray, who is the first member of the Rumburg half of the family Julia has met. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy the hike, and it seemed (to us) that Jess's Dad has a better idea of why we're here instead of... well... anywhere else. With Trail Days quickly approaching, and many miles to go still, we decided to take the opportunity of having a car around and yellow-blazed 30 miles to Erwin, TN (knowing there was a Pizza Hut there helped convince us;) ). Jess handed off some of his winter gear, and they dropped us off at the trail again. Jess's Dad, on parting, said he was proud of Jess (and me), which went strait to Jess's core (and I also appreciated). Given the feedback from all four parents, it seems all you need to do to get your parents approval is quit your job, loose your place to live, and go wander around in the woods for six months. KIDDING;) I'm guessing it has more to do with our determination to succeed at doing something for no good reason other than because we want to, which is truly a beautiful thing. Feel free to correct me, parents. Speaking of being proud of Jess, it is official: he is a May 2009 BS Graduate from the College of Enivronmental Science and Forestry:). So Mike, we all tied after all.

Up, up, up we hiked to "Beauty Spot", a location that had been talked up to us by past thru-hikers, but it was so cold and windy up there we barely even looked around. It didn't seem like much compared to Max Patch anyway. Up some more onto Unaka Mountain and into a cloud; the day after Russ/Dad visited wasn't even over yet, and Jess was already regretting loosing his winter gear. Julia at this point also discovered that she had left her rain jacket and hat in the car, which was probably/definately worse, since wet-cold is way more of a problem than just cold. Another 20 miles to Roan Mountain, the top of which was, again, in a cloud (first time above 6000 ft since the Smokies). Walking in a cloud is sort of like walking in the rain but worse. The cloud condenses onto the trees and falls as a lightish rain/mist that gets into everything, and it's much colder and windier. Also, no view. We walked right by the shelter at the top without even noticing it. Down the other side, out of the cloud; 2 miles past the shelter, there was a road, which was our first clue that we had passed it. We arrived at the road at sunset. Gnarly, who I mentioned in the last blog, had been bunny-hopping with us (we pass him, he passes us, over and over) throughout that day, and we 3 decided to hike into the night to the next shelter. Up, up, up from the road onto bald mountains (grass only, no significant population of trees or bushes), and the setting sun behind the wispy clouds covering the mountain we had just descended from was so spooky and beautiful and perfect... it looked like some kind of weird Edvard Munch painting (see "The Scream"). We hiked into the night and into the mist, which makes headlamps pretty useless (although I was quite happy to have a brand new really awesome super blindingly bright headlamp), and the trail was pretty poorly maintained so we each wiped out badly, but only once apiece, so the Trail was just letting us know to be careful, which we were thankful for. The 3 of us arrived at the shelter at 11:30. Now, we 3 are late night people, people who enjoy the occaisional night hike, and don't usually get up before 10, and we have been scolded by the self-considered "respectable" hiker for keeping them awake past 7 pm (that is not an exaggeration - the sun doesn't even completely set till 9), so we were understandably ecstatic when we found the shelter was empty - the first empty shelter we have come across this entire hike. The next day was a beautiful, blue sky day, absolutely perfect for the series of balds that we climbed. Balds are beautiful and green and have fantastic panoramic views - see "The Sound of Music" for a more accurate description and a good aerial shot of one. On one bald we came across a herd of longhorn cattle (each horn 2-3 feet long, at least), which were really intimidating, standing on the trail in front of us and uphill. I figured "someone owns these domesticated cattle, I'll just be confident in walking towards them and they'll move". Then the big one stomped his foot, and I saw a calf behind him. We went around them, braving the sticker bushes. As soon as we stepped off the trail, they chilled out and kept doing their thing. I hear the ATC leases these mountaintops to local ranchers to keep the balds bald. That night we camped in a field of 3-ft grass, and ended up talking with Gnarly until 5 am about the nature of the universe and the planet and the species and the society we are trying so desperately to escape, which I believe I mentioned in my rantish blog (I notice no one commented on that).

The next day, with 3 days to the start of Trail Days and 80 miles to go, Gnarly took off to try to make it on foot, figuring he'd at least make the end. We had promised to meet The Tribe, so we continued to amble at a slow steady pace, past several beautiful waterfalls, into Hampton, where we yellow-blazed to Damascus, and found our Tribe again. Liz and Marc acquired their trail names, DizzyBat and DugOut. I'll leave their stories for them to tell. We met and refound many good people, including and not limited to Moe!, Gnarly, Sky, Red Lion, 10x10, Father Time, Muscles, N Da Wind, Giggles, Ezra, Kalamity Kate, Stone Skipper, Ten Sticks, Boofer (Jess' namer), Night Moves (Julia's namer, formerly One Step), Basher, Zuma, Blow-Job Carney, Oden, Heather, and it gets really hard to remember these names, especially if you haven't seen them in a while, so any 09ers who come across this and are sad that Graveyard didn't think to mention them remember I have the memory of a dead rat!

The Phlo, Graveyard, DizzyBat, DugOut, and Einstein (Jess, Julia, Liz, Marc, and Einstein the dog) set out from Damascus after Trail Days together, trying to hitch-hike back to Hampton, largely so we could see Laurel Fork Falls (otherwise we probably would have hiked out of Damascus so as to keep up with the above list, who mostly had arrived at Trail Days by foot). We got an offer for a ride to Mountain City, 1/3 of the way to Hampton (which is an hour from Damascus by car). She stopped at a random road halfway to Mountain City, saying that she had groceries and couldn't take us the next 6 miles, but that we were sure to get a hitch. An hour and a half later, the sun was setting, and we were still dancing for every pick-up truck that blared by. One honked, waved, and turned down the wrong road (actually, most of them seemed to get a kick out of waving and honking, especially if they were going the way we needed to go - which I don't understand because we were clearly stranded in the middle of nowhere). About 20 minutes later, he came back. He was a super friendly guy named Max, who couldn't take us to Mountain City tonight, but he could tomorrow, and if we'd like we could come stay at his cabin on his beef farm. Small miracles never cease to amaze me. So the five of us hop into his pickup truck, Dizzy & I in front & the 3 boys in back. Max drives us up onto his property, touring us around, telling me & Dizzy a million stories about anything and everything, and shows us amazing view after amazing view, finally pulling us up next to an old, dilapidated, rusted out bus he calls "The Magic Bus" at the top of his tallest hill with an incredible panoramic sunset spilling in every direction in front of us (meanwhile Dugout & Phlo have no idea whats going on, and are kind of freaked about this pickup ambling around on a roadless field - but the man knows his farm), then drives us down the hill into a small valley, hidden from the world, with a little cabin with a woodstove (and wouldn't you know it was below freezing for the first time in a month that night?).

I am not kidding you. This is real. We were absolutely blown away. And the next day, when Max brought us coffee and invited us to stay another night, we jumped on the offer. We spent the day wandering around amongst cows and donkeys and horses, playing fetch with Einstein, dunking our heads in the water trough from the spring up the hill. Max had promised he would hang out with us that night, but he was a no-show till 2:30 am, when we were already in bed. The next day, when Max brought us coffee and sausage gravey and biscuits, he told us it was because a friend of his had rolled in his tractor (lucky to be alive!) and he had been with him in the hospital all day and into the night, finally coming to check on us because we were stranded in the middle of his farm with no idea of where we were and no resources but our packs and spring water. Not a situation we were unused to lol, but his concern was much appreciated. But, because of the accident, he hadn't gotten any work done the day before, so had to spend that day catching up, so he didn't have time to take us to Mountain City. Oh no! Another day on the farm, how sad. HaHA! The next day, when he heard us debating how best to pull off the hitch from Mountain City to Hampton, a resupply, and showers, he brought us to his house for showers, to the local grocery for a resupply, and all the way to Hampton. MAX IS AWESOME:)

I should note that the 3 days we spent at Max's was about how long it would take to get from Hampton to Damascus, so we debated just going back to Damascus, eventually putting our options in a hat and picking one at random (call it the Trail's will), and we picked Hampton.

We 5 hiked on, Laurel Fork Falls was beautiful. We got as far as Watauga Lake, on Memorial Day weekend, so we were surrounded by grilling burgers. Sad (from feeling like we were backwards, not forwards) and starved, we were understandably blown away when a Mt Rogers van pulled up right in front of us, with an offer to shuttle us for free to a country restaurant. Note: Mt. Rogers Outfitters is located in Damascus. Wasn't a hard decision, really, since we could go with him for free back to Damascus, as he had to go back there that night anyway.

Another 3 nights in Damascus later, we were really sick of towns. Example: Dizzy and Dug were staying in the only dog-friendly place in town, and we were quietly (yes, we were really being quiet) hanging out with them on the back porch (we were staying at a cheaper location). Phlo and I were sharing a beer, Dizzy and Dug and some other guests had a few of their own, and the owner asked us to leave because it was a rule that non guests couldn't drink on her property, and proceeded to scold Dizzy, Dug, and the other guests that we didn't even know prior to this for disobeying her rules. Which she had never told any of them, nor was it posted on the list of rules outside the house. Peace out Damascus, thanks for Trail Days, and could you please tone down the hostility next year? I mean, the people are great, but the cops were intrusive and unhelpful... Red Lion stepped on a whittled stick that went through his sandel into his foot, and laid there in pain until a friend found him and hobbled him over to the police station... and it took an hour for any help to arrive. That's the story anyway, haven't heard it from his mouth. Meanwhile, there are cops roving through campsites asking to see wristbands to make sure everyone had paid for their campsite. Interesting method to "serve and protect". I guess they were "serving and protecting" the landowner...oh wait... it was a public park.... I guess they were just "serving and protecting" themselves... especially since the whole Damascus police staff recently got replaced, as the last bunch was caught for making and dealing Crystal Meth.

Anyway.

Stone Skipper (Jen) caught up with us at this point (she had gone back to Erwin), and we six (don't forget the dog!) hiked on. It rained and we all got freezing cold for the first time in a long while, especially my soaking wet, rain jacket-less self. The next day we met up with Lorri/Mom and Rob (Jess's brother), who had driven down so that Rob could see Jess (and me) before taking off for his job in Colorado in a few weeks, at Grayson Highlands, which was an absolutely beautiful area full of ponies that bug you for food. Despite the fact that I had just been freezing the night before, I gave up my winter gear, as she had brought me back my rain jacket and hat:) She also brought six sandwiches with fresh bread and tomatoes and ham and cheese and deliciousness without even knowing we'd have a Tribe with us (Max has named us the Bad News Bears by the way), and she happily gave them out to the hungry hikers, keeping nothing for herself. The next day was Dugout's birthday, so we were trying to figure out some way to get all six of us to Marion, the closest big town. Lorri/Mom went above and beyond, ferrying Dugout, DizzyBat, Einstien, and Stone Skipper up to Marion and coming back for Rob, Phlo, and myself (also Zoe, the Rumburg's dog), half hour each way. THANK YOU!!!

Dugout's birthday was a happy one. DizzyBat has a wedding to fly to from DC at the end of June, so, sadly, it appears the Tribe is going to be separated again as they are thinking about yellow-blazing up to Bland or Pearisburg so that they don't have to average 18 miles a day to make it to Front Royal, where she thinks she has a ride. We will be hiking on from here with Stone Skipper still, and we hope that we've yellow-blazed enough that we may have caught Gnarly, Moe!, and other assorted faces that we miss. We are entering the green tunnel - seeing the pictures that are posted on WalMart's site reminded me of what we used to see, 'cause we're sure not seeing that anymore. The forest has come alive, and as the ridgeline through Virginia is supposedly relatively easy (compared to the Smokies or the Whites anyway), so we're hoping to crank up the miles to 15-20 per day. Roanoke is 200 miles away, where we will be visiting the Rumburg family. The Aqua Blaze is approximately 300 miles away, and is slowly coming together. We have Manner's approval, and an offer for a canoe shuttle. Just need to get the timing ironed out, but we won't be too sure about that till we know how fast we can hike this ridge. By the next post, we'll have set a date, and if we don't get there by white blaze, we'll just have to get there by yellow. Or blue.

Peace & Love to all.