5/24/99 Lost Mountain Shelter   Miles Today : 15.8 Miles from Springer : 468.2

Let me start out today by saying that I am going to try to turn over a new leaf. I am on the verge of burning out and I need to change my hiking habits before my body just stops working. Basically, what is happening is that I wake up, rush out of camp, stop briefly once every two hours for a snack or lunch and hit camp usually around 7-7:30. Turns out that even with the regular days off that this pace is too much. So I am going to try to sleep later, hike a little slower and hit camp by 6:00 for a little while anyway. This isn't the way I want to hike, but if I don't do something, I will burn out before I get out of Virginia.

That being said, I took my time getting going today. I went to the post office to get my mail drop, went to the town hall to send out some emails/surf the web, etc… Imagine my surprise to find out that the Red Sox are on top of the Yankees! Eat that Clemens. I got packed up and ready to go around 11:30.

Keeping with my relaxed attitude, I stopped at Cowboys on my way out of town for a quick breakfast. Let me preface this by saying that Cowboys is a small fast food shack in the back of an Exxon station, so I wasn;t exactly thinking of top shelf food here. When I asked for breakfast, the woman told me that they had stopped serving it, but she was interupted by the owner who told me that HE would cook me a nice big breakfast. Cool, I grab a milk and a coffee and take a seat ( yes, there were a few tables in the Exxon) awaiting his masterpiece. I got scrambled eggs, fresh tomatoes, homefries, greasy grits, 2 fresh biskits, homemade strawberry jam and steak! Wow was I impressed and what a great way to start the day! Oh yea, all that stuff was only five bucks, score!

After that, I headed out of town, full to the brim, and hiked about ½ speed. Suprisingly I had a lot of fun and I wasn't anxious to get moving like I normally get. Before I knew it, I had gone six miles and popped out onto a road. At a picnic table I started talking to this thru-hiker Consolo, who had slackpacked from Damascus to here. Turns out that he has an ankle injury as well and was testing it out after almost 10 days off. After talking to him for a while, I found out he is a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch and he sends stories about his trip back home. You can read about his adventures online at www.dispatch.com if you just can't get enough of this stuff!

As I am taking with him, Drive-By and Monika show up. The three of us then headed out on the trail and got to the first shelter around 4:00 or so. Now here comes the dilema, do I bail early after only nine miles and relax, or push on the to the next shelter six miles away? So much for this new leaf of mine! Actually, I felt great, and I got to the shelter by 6:30 - perfect!

Here at the shelter is Cobra and two buddies Dannon and Yoplait. Cobra is from Pensylvania and shared a Tasty Cake with me. Score! OK, that's it for now, looking forward to another calm hiking day tomorrow.

-Chomp

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