We'd been planning this for months. In fact, we took our first trip to REI together in the winter to get her a pack to begin the gearing up process. And she'd been following up ever since.
She got there that night. The next day we resupplied at Kroger and went back to the room to get the "hurricane" of food and equipment funneled into our packs. We were off to do some hiking.
Hiking with a partner is something I find I increasingly enjoy. We sang duets, and Ashley, a music teacher and former pop singer in her high school days, taught me about harmonies. She had me hum a 'C' note, and then she added her own voice in harmony. "Hear how it's pretty?" she asked, leading the way up the trail.
[Ashley dismounting a stile, just north of Daleville, May 20.]
[Cow! May 20.]
We played "Six Degrees," which I rocked at. We watched a train go by. We finished our first day as a trail couple at Wilson Creek Shelter, an 11-mile day, and set up the tent. Having Ashley in the tent made me sleep all the more soundly.
In the morning, we took it slow. I gots to have my coffee.
This part of the trail wound back and forth across the Blue Ridge Parkway in places where we could peer over the edge of the ridge on both sides and see into West Virginia, where the Allegheny range paralleled us, or onto the Peaks of Otter, a resort-encrusted mountain jutting to the east.
[I discovered a curious artifact on the trail very close to the Blue Ridge Parkway.]
After a long day [14 miles] we tented again at Cove Mountain Shelter. Ashley was out of it until we had dinner.
On our third day together we took it real easy. We hiked to Jennings Creek, walked a bit up the road and hitched a ride in the back of a pickup truck to Middle Creek Campground and went to the country store for some hot food and cold, carbonated drinks. We played air hockey in the store's "arcade" and then shot hoops at the basketball court. By court, I mean a 20 ft by 20 ft paved square with a hoop. As a bonus, the register was one of the rare ones to contain entries from the class of 2009. It was nice to read that people I've hiked with had a good time there a year earlier.
Afterward we hiked the mile or so back to the trail and started climbing. The sky opened up and dumped a torrent of fresh rain on us. It seemed like minutes later the storm was done and we were nearing Bryant Ridge Shelter, our intended destination.
"Getting in at 4:30, just like the old men do it," I said. The deluxe two-story shelter loomed above the creek and trail. And as a matter of fact four old men already occupied it.
There was so much room that I pitched my tent, without the rain fly, on the top level. Two young hikers, T-Funk and Rock and Roll, showed up later and set up across the room on the same floor. As we bedded down, a long, drawn-out fart ripped through the country for old men down below. It was material for comedy among us younger ones in the morning. Ashley suggested, in the register, a fireman's pole or a slide into a ball pit for getting down from the top level of the shelter.
The next day Ashley got to climb all morning as we made our way up to Floyd Mountain. It was 1,000 feet up in the damp hot air. And we had to hurry, because we had to meet a shuttle back to Daleville at noon where the Blue Ridge Parkway connects with a short side trail from Cornelius Creek Shelter. I ran the last half of a mile or so and bade the shuttle man wait, and soon we were headed south on the parkway. We spotted a wild turkey - the only one I've seen so far - on the side of the road.
We took strong advantage of Ashley's car and drove south from Daleville 20 minutes to Catawba, home of the legendary Homeplace restaurant. The restaurant is open only Thursday through Sunday - I'd missed it because of Trail Days. We put our names on the list and waited while a man with a Virginia drawl called out parties on the outdoor loudspeakers. Lots of people wore church clothes, it being Sunday. The restaurant's simplicity is its strong suit. It's AYCE, and the menu consists of fried chicken, country ham, roast beef and a smattering of fixins, including biscuits and some insanely good apple butter.
I felt rejuvenated by food.
[Me and Ashley at the Homeplace, Catawba, Va. The shot was at the end of a series on self timer, hence the pose. May 23.]
After resupplying at the Daleville Kroger again, Ashley drove me to the side trail to Cornelius Creek Shelter, where we parted.
I thought about stopping for the night, but changed my mind and summited Apple Orchard Mountain [elev. 4,225 ft] on my way to Thunder Hill Shelter, arriving just after 8 p.m.
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