Saturday, June 6th - D-Day, 65th Anniversary - Up at 6:30 or so to finish up my packup; Mark up at 7:00. Decent looking day to start, clear and about 60 degrees. Headed over to the hotel office to check out their continental breakfast - it was "that's it?," so we headed back over to the Burger King for some of their croissandwiches. But we did stop in at the office on the way back for their "dessert" breakfast items, so it wasn't a total waste. Moved our stuff outside, and found Solar System and Naneek doing likewise; apparently they had arranged a co-ride with Legs (so Legs was doing pretty good on this trip, $40 for 4 of us). He showed up at 8:25; Mark and I got the front seat, while Solar System and Naneek took the bed of the pickup - exposed, but a lot drier and more pleasant than our trip into Glasgow yesterday! Took off a minute later, but then Solar System knocked on the back window and said she had forgotten her hiking stick back at the hotel, so we had to go back to retrieve it (which we did).
On the trip out of town, we noted that all the flags were at half-staff, certainly in honor of D-Day. Back to the James River footbridge, arriving around 9:05. Hatchet was there, with Chachee's car (quite a beat-up wreck); I guess they are somehow leapfrogging the car up the trail so it will be available to them when they reach certain stop-points, thus saving them shuttle fees. I guess whoever is driving it must be reverse hiking and handing the keys off as they pass the main group coming north. An interesting variation, certainly saving them a lot of money over the course of the trip (and surely no one would be stealing this particular car, that's for sure; it looked barely drivable).
On the trail again around 9:20, starting with about a 2,000 foot climb up Rocky Mountain. Near the top, we enjoyed two magnificent overlooks of the James River valley - I got some pictures, which (again) probably don't do it justice. We continued up another 500 feet to the top of Bluff Mountain, where we passed a memorial to Ottie Cline Powell , a near 5 year old boy who "wandered away from his schoolyard" in 1891, 
and whose remains were found at that spot four months later ["Murder Most Foul," say I - no 5 year old "wandered" 7 miles up a brutal 4,000 foot mountain in the dead of winter!] I spent a few minutes and said some prayers for the soul of this poor, murdered kid. A few feet further on was a bald with a wonderful overlook both northwest and southeast. We moved on to Punchbowl Shelter at 3:15 - allegedly haunted by the soul of Ottie. Well, I can't speak of the accuracy of that, but there was a small pond nearby that was well haunted by hundreds of croaking frogs, so no place for Bob to try and spend a night (they were already noisy in the middle of the day!)
and whose remains were found at that spot four months later ["Murder Most Foul," say I - no 5 year old "wandered" 7 miles up a brutal 4,000 foot mountain in the dead of winter!] I spent a few minutes and said some prayers for the soul of this poor, murdered kid. A few feet further on was a bald with a wonderful overlook both northwest and southeast. We moved on to Punchbowl Shelter at 3:15 - allegedly haunted by the soul of Ottie. Well, I can't speak of the accuracy of that, but there was a small pond nearby that was well haunted by hundreds of croaking frogs, so no place for Bob to try and spend a night (they were already noisy in the middle of the day!) We collected water from the feeder creek leading to the pond, ate some of our mid-day snacks, and decided to push on as far as we cared to or til our legs said "enough already." Unlike most shelters mid-day, there were 4 other people already at this shelter, including one couple who were staying due to the wife's severe tendenitis in her ankles (doesn't look good for their long-term prospects). Continuing on, we passed one stretch of at least a half a mile with (again) tens of thousands of blooming mountain laurels; just spectacular walking, and a very nice scent too. In general, today's trails were great - gentle grades, switchbacked, etc., and between the trails and the weather this was just about our best day of hiking since we started.
Later we ran into Stooge and Nanny Goat at a road crossing and a bridge across a wide creek - about half a dozen hikers were there, including Mofo, Tahoe, a pair of older teens (one from Illinois, the other from North Carolina), and Bob-Bon. Mark got a soda; I grabbed some cookies and a little Gatorade, which was about all I wanted after snacking at the last shelter. Another unexpected Trail Magic. Crossing the bridge, we continued on towards Brown Mountain Creek Shelter, enjoying a mile long walk along the creek itself, a picturesque setting. After passing Solar System and Naneek (tent-camping along the creek), we reached the shelter itself at around 8:00, finding only Bob-Bon there. She indicated that the biting fly problem here was minimal, so we decided to shelter it for tonight, and so quickly set up and then ate dinner as the light faded away; no one else came to the shelter, but someone (maybe Tahoe) tent-camped across the creek, maybe a hundred feet away. We have a near full moon tonight, and a clear sky, so it will likely be a bright night. So almost 20 miles today, 10 miles further than we had expected - a good day on the trail, one of our best days so far.
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