Day 59: Short Miles and Long Visits

• Brown Mountain Creek Shelter (807.6) to Cow Camp Gap Shelter (813.2)
• 2710 feet ascent, 961 feet descent 

Today we have a planned short day. As many other Trek bloggers have noted, there are official miles and bonus miles. Official miles are those that accumulate between official numbered points on the AT. Bonus miles accumulate when you walk to the water source, the privy, the shelter, etc. Most days include bonus miles. 

The bonus miles rack up when the shelters are .3 or .5 miles off the trail. In Virginia, getting water can rack up bonus miles since you often have to leave a ridgeline and go down a distance to get water. 

Bonus Miles Add Up

Most days, we add about an extra half mile trotting around doing chores or finding shelter. Sometimes, it is more. Today and the previous two days have included over 1 bonus mile each. Tomorrow portends to be another big bonus mile day. 

Taking all this into consideration, along with some serious climbs the past days, we decided to make today a short day. We aimed to cover 5.7 miles with 2710 feet of climb along with an anticipated extra mile getting water and to the shelter that was located 1/2 mile off “red line,” as the oficial trail is often known. 

A Slow Start

Even though we knew the short miles would be rather steep, we loitered around the shelter at the start of the day. We don’t always make morning coffee to drink because the stove goes relatively deep in my backpack. If we have coffee, it delays my repacking by 15 minutes because of the need to layer my gear for weight balance. 

This mornong, we languished over morning coffee savoring our fair trade instant decaf as if it were freshly barista brewed. 

An Early Break

We finally pried our behinds off the shelter picnic table and started hiking. We were in no hurry. The first two miles only gained 200 feet. It would be flat. Like walking in a city park. It wasn’t actually flat, but we moved along well enough. 

When we came to the wayside at US Route 60, it was like a fair. Cars were zooming by in both directions. Hikers were milling around, thumbing rides to Bunea Vista, being returned to the trail by shuttles and just hiking across the road. 

Visiting at Route 60

There was so much excitement we visited on the south side of the crossing then went over the pavement and visited on the north side of the crossing. 

No one appeared to have any time pressure and we fell right into the attitude.

On the south side of the crossing, a thru hiker pulled out a small notebook and asked us for the songs that ran through our head. 

I answered immediately with the song that had inhabited my head for days,  Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream. It was written by Ed McCurdy in 1950 and recorded by Pete Seger in 1957. In the next decade many folk singers, including Simon and Garfunkel recorded versions. 

Last night I had the strangest dream

I ever dreamed before

I dreamed the world had all agreed

To put an end to war

The Historian didn’t have as quick and answer but came in with Bob Dillon’s Blowing in the Wind.

We were both somewhat startled by the question but enthralled with it. We very much enjoyed standing on the trail singing with a man a third our age. 

Cross the Road and Sit on a Rock

After our singing, we looked both ways for the zooming traffic and crossed to the other side. Somehow a cluster of thru hikers accumulated to populate the rocks that were positioned to keep cars from entering the trail. Someone started eating. Food, great idea. We pulled out snacks and joined in. Thirty minutes passed on this side of the trail crossing. 

One of the young men found a tick on his buttocks and asked me to remove it. I volunteered The Historian who ably and efficiently removed the offending critter. In retrospect, I guess the request was made to an Oma, granny aways fixes things. Today, Opa was the perfect grandpa. 

Back to Hiking, for a While

Slowly we all drifted back to the trail. It was our job to hike after all. We were the first to leave.

Plod, plod, plod. The steep part of the hike is here.  Aftet two hours, two miles and 2000 feet of ascent, we attained a grassy patch where the trail and an old road intersected. There were no logs or rocks so we flopped on the ground with our packs as backrest. The ground bugs were mildly irritating but not enough to overcome restoring from the hot climb.

Soon, the others started arriving. Although they took about half as long as we to make the climb, they looked just as tired. Flop, flop, flop, the grass around us was populated with delightful young thru hikers. Lunch was full of sparkling youth. 

Back to Hiking One More Lap

After another hour of visiting, we donned our packs and trundle off for the last lap of the day. Another 2 hours of hiking took us to the turnoff for our shelter. 

The shelter was so far off the trail we had considered not using it. Going there added a half mile to the day and a half mile to tomorrow. With all the fun visiting today, we had extra incentives to gather the bonus miles. 

 We ate a large package of home dehydrated mac and cheese. The fun, young people around us finished their evening chores, ate their dinners and retired to their tents and hammocks. We had the shelter to ourselves.

Hiker midnight arrived after most of us were snoring quietly in our beds. Joy had filled us all up and worn us all out.