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background="/images/spacers/hom_spcr_headrule.gif"> </td> <td width="256" height="20" background="/images/spacers/hom_spcr_headrule.gif"> </td> <td width="11" height="20" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" background="/images/spacers/hom_spcr_whtbrdr_rt03.gif"> </td> </tr> <tr align="left" valign="bottom"> <td width="10" height="20" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> </td> <td colspan="3" height="20"> <p align="left">  <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2" color="#333333" class="main_morelink"> <a href="/default.htm">Home</a> > <a href="/atpledge/default.htm">Appalachian Trail Hike for Kids</a> > <a href="/atpledge/updates.htm">Updates</a> > Latest Updates </font>  </p> </td> <td width="11" height="20" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" background="/images/spacers/hom_spcr_whtbrdr_rt03.gif"> </td> </tr> <tr align="left" valign="top"> <td width="10" height="412" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> </td> <td colspan="3" height="412"> <br> <p class="main_text"><span class="main_text">  <table width="150" border="0" align="right" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border:1px solid #666"> <tr> <td colspan="3"><input name="imageField4" type="image" src="images/LizMike.jpg" width="150" height="104" border="0"></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3" bgcolor="#99CC99" style="padding: 5px 0px 5px 0px"> <div align="center"> <input name="Submit" type="submit" onClick="MM_goToURL('parent','https://www.cwla.org/sec/donate/Donatehikingforkids.htm');return document.MM_returnValue" value="Make a Pledge"> <br> </div></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#FFCC99"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <input name="imageField3" type="image" src="images/camera.gif" alt="View Video" width="12" height="12" border="0"> Video</font></div></td> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#FFCC99"> </td> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#FFCC99"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <input name="imageField22" type="image" src="images/audio.gif" alt="Listen to Soundclip" width="14" height="10" border="0"> Audio</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#FFCC99"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1"><a href="http://www.storylinegroup.com/video/hf100k.wmv">100K</a> <a href="http://www.storylinegroup.com/video/hf300k.wmv">300k</a></font></font></div></td> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#FFCC99"> </td> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#FFCC99"><div align="center"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.storylinegroup.com/cwla/cwlaaudio.wma">16k</a></font></div></td> </tr> </table> <h3>Trail Updates:<br> Mike Kanarick and Liz Kleinberg Hike the AT benefiting Child Welfare League of America.</h3> <h4>Latest Updates:</h4> <b>Wednesday, April 30</b><br> <b>Destination:</b> Beauty Spot Gap<br> <b>Starting Location:</b> Erwin TN<br> <b>Today's Miles:</b> 10.8<br> <b>Trip Miles:</b> 350.3<br> <br> Had another delicious breakfast at the Elms, then to the Post Office, then back to pack up. Somehow it got to be 1:00 before we were ready to leave . . . but we were excited to hit the trail, and soon we and some friends were making the uphill climb out of town. A few miles into our hike we heard thunder rumbling in the distance, getting louder and louder. The group thought maybe we should stop and put on our rain gear, but Moo urged us on, and that turned out to be smart-we made it to the first shelter only seconds before the sky opened up and it started hailing! We took a long lunch break to wait out the storm, and finally, about 4:45, we left the shelter to go another 11 miles. Came upon Beauty Spot Gap, a bald where <i>Last of the Mohicans</i> was filmed (so they say -- there was a controlled burn since then, and the woods leading up to the bald aren't all that beautiful now, although the bald is great). The guidebook said there was a campsite just a mile or so later, and we looked and looked, but couldn't find it. It was getting dark and we didn't know how much longer the storm would hold off, so we just made our own campsite in the woods. <br><br><br> <b>Thursday, May 1</b><br> <b>Destination:</b> Cherry Gap Shelter<br> <b>Starting Location:</b> Beauty Spot Gap<br> <b>Today's Miles:</b> 5.6<br> <b>Trip Miles:</b> 355.9<br> <br> Happy May Day! <br><br> Hiked up Unaka Mountain-it was a wooded summit on top, so no views, but it was gorgeous. It looked like an enchanted forest; you could almost see Hansel and Gretel roaming around. Then we hiked down and went to the first shelter for lunch. We got there before our fellow hikers and had lunch as they trickled in. Everyone was lazing around, not really motivating to hike on, and Moo suggested that we stay at that shelter for the rest of the day. We loved that idea and set up our tents. We napped, played cards, wrote in our journals, wonderful day. That night we had a campfire. We had been planning on having one for a while-when we left town, Moo was carrying two lbs. of marshmallows, and another hiker had two packages of hotdogs and buns, but it had been raining too much to eat them. Finally we had a clear night, so we cooked up the dogs, roasted the marshmallows, and even had s'mores. Yum! <br><br><br> <b>Friday, May 2</b><br> <b>Destination:</b> Roan High Knob Shelter<br> <b>Starting Location:</b> Cherry Gap Shelter<br> <b>Today's Miles:</b> 15.1<br> <b>Trip Miles:</b> 371<br> <br> After our slacker (but wonderful) day yesterday, we were determined to make some miles and headed out for Roan Mountain. Great view from Little Rock Knob. As we were coming down, the sky turned totally dark, so we stopped to put on our rain gear, and the second we put our stuff down, it started pouring! 42 got all her rain stuff on, but for some reason, Moo didn't put on his rain pants, and his shorts were soaked through in seconds. <br><br> The storm broke before we hit Roan Mountain, so we decided to climb up. About halfway up, the storm returned in full force. There wasn't much we could do but keep on climbing, but we counted the seconds between the lightning and thunder to see (in that very scientific manner) how close the lightning was. It got as close as three seconds apart but no closer, so we kept on climbing. Off to our right, we could see that the sky was totally clear, though dark and ominous overhead-very neat. The storm finally moved to our left, and the skies cleared for the rest of our climb, which was good, because it became a bit of a rock scramble. It was a very fun climb, but we didn't need torrential rains during it. At the top of the mountain was a sign showing where a hotel used to be-the hotel straddled the North Carolina/Tennessee border, and in the Tennessee half of the hotel alcohol was allowed, while in the other half it was prohibited. A sheriff who used to sit around and wait for people with alcohol to cross into the NC half so he could arrest them. <br><br> We then made our way to the shelter. By that point, we were cold and wet, and we figured there would be no room in the shelter so we'd have to pitch our tent and it would probably get wet . . . we weren't really looking forward to that. Then we got to the shelter, and it was amazing! Not your normal shelter, which has only three walls-instead, this one was a cabin-it had four walls and a door, two floors, and plenty of space on the second floor. It was a haven-there was plenty of room for us not only to sleep, but to hang a line for our clothes. Moo made dinner, but didn't use quite enough water, so we pretty much had dry mashed potatoes and stuffing for dinner. <br><br><br> <b>Saturday, May 3</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Elk Park, NC <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Roan High Knob Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 15.1 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 386.1 <br><br> Although we had hung up our clothing in the shelter, it hadn't totally dried, and it was wet and clammy when we put it on, a nasty way to start the day! But it was no longer raining, so we hit the trail. We read in the guidebook that there was a public restroom in just a mile or so, so we waited to wash up and brush our teeth until we got there. When we got there, there was just a privy and a stream-not exactly what we expected, but we made do. As we were all standing around brushing our teeth, a van full of tourists pulled up, and as they poured out of the van they looked at us like we were animals in an exhibit, saying, "Now over there are thru-hikers." Really. Some of them came over and asked us questions, others just stared. <br><br> We hiked up a couple of balds, Round Bald and Jane Bald-we love the balds! Then we came to the Overmountain Shelter. We had heard it was in the movie The People Under the Stairs, so we went to check it out even though it was .5m off the trail. It was an incredible old barn that could fit tons of people. The setting was beautiful, in a valley between two mountains filled with wild flowers that made us want to move in. We took a long lunch there and basked in the sun and the setting. Then we got ready to drag ourselves away, only to get caught up in the meadow. Finally started hiking again. <br><br> We had read in the guidebook that there was a steakhouse just 9 miles away. We didn't want to bust our butts to get there if it would be closed, so Moo whipped out the cell phone-he was actually able to get service-and discovered that the restaurant was open until 9:00. Now the question was, could we get there in time? <br><br> First we had to go up a bald called Little Hump Mountain, which was incredible. Then we went into a valley, then up Hump Mountain, another bald. Hump Mountain definitely made the other mountain seem little-it was huge! We got to what we thought was the top and took a break, then kept hiking, only to realize there was a lot more. We finally came over the top and saw the plaque, then made our way over to Doll Flats-Moo called 42 a over to check something out, and when she got around a rock, she saw these enormous longhorns right in the middle of the trail! There were about 20 of them, and they were huge, with absolutely massive horns, and some of them even had rings in their noses. Amazing! Moo had no fear-he kept talking about how he could communicate w/ them because he was Moo. He put his Leki poles on top of his head, making like a cow, and moo-ing, and one longhorn did moo in response. We started going through, taking lots of photos along the way. Then we came to one longhorn smack in the middle of the trail, rubbing its back against a post that had a white blaze on it, and there was a calf nearby-we didn't want to get anywhere between the longhorn and the calf, so we gave them a wide berth. The longhorns just watched us as we made our way through their pasture. <br><br> We had a long hike down the mountain, but got down in time to go to the steakhouse & hitched a ride there. Good steaks, good shrimp, mmm. Our plan was to hit the trail after dinner and hike in for just a mile or so and camp, but you know what happens to our plans … We got a ride from the restaurant owner to a motel about nine miles away, the Shady Lawn Motel. Showered, relaxed, went to bed. <br><br><br> <b>Sunday, May 4</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Laurel Fork Spring <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Elk Park, NC <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 14 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 400.1 <br><br> Had a huge breakfast at the Shady Lawn Restaurant, then got a ride to the trailhead. Waiting at the trailhead was a trail angel with a truck full of food! Although we were stuffed from breakfast, we made room for more food-you can't turn down trail magic! Finally got on the trail about 10:40. Beautiful walk through fields, then we got to Jones Falls, a wonderful waterfall. Had lunch next to another waterfall. Our original goal had been to hike 17 miles, but after relaxing for a little while, we changed our plan and decided to camp ASAP. The only problem was that we couldn't find a campsite. Finally met up with a couple of other hikers (and a dog) and we camped next to them. Moo had some trouble hanging the bear rope and finally decided just to mouse-proof the food and let the bears get it if they wanted it (they didn't). We made a campfire and had marshmallows as we ate dinner. Just as 42 was about to have a marshmallow, someone mentioned that marshmallows contain gelatin . . . no more for 42 the veggie, alas! <br><br><br> <b>Monday, May 5</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Kincora <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Lauren Fork Spring <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 9.1 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 409.2 We were excited to get to Kincora because we had heard it was a nice hostel run by incredible people, but the weather was also excited, and a windstorm slowed us down. As we walked through the woods, we could hear the wind howling and see the trees swaying and bending, and we could even hear limbs falling nearby. Not a very relaxing hike. Then we dropped into a valley and everything changed-the wind ceased, the sun came out, all was peaceful. Moo and 42 fell behind the group, and as we got out of the woods and onto the road to Kincora we were on our own. When we finally got to Kincora (after a wrong turn and a ride from a kind stranger), it was totally deserted. We figured that everyone had gone to town, and we made ourselves at home while we waited. We put all our clothes in the laundry and showered, so we were sitting around in towels when they all got back, including the hostel owners who we had never met-nothing like introducing yourself to someone wearing only a towel while you're in their home and they don't know you're there. But they didn't even blink an eye, and we later realized that things like that happen all the time. Kincora was full that night so we didn't get a bed, but we camped out on the living room floor and had fun hanging out with everyone until they all hit the sack and freed up our bedroom. Note: Sleeping away from the snorers ain't such a bad thing. <br><br><br> <b>Tuesday, May 6</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Kincora <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Kincora <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 0 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 409.2 <br><br> Up early as folks came through the living room. We were planning to do trail maintenance, but it turned out it was cancelled due to rain-yup, we can hike in the rain, but we can't do maintenance in the rain. 42 was very disappointed that we'd be able to completely relax for the day. <br><br> Went into town to get a hot meal and resupply-we sure do love riding in the back of pickup trucks!! Moo ravaged the Chinese buffet, while 42 pizza pizza'd at Little Caesar's. <br><br> Went back to Kincora, where 42 became engaged in a knock-'em-down tough game of Monopoly (she was the shoe). While victory escaped her, she was a fairly long-standing property owner until Blaze, the slumlord with properties like Baltic Ave., won. <br><br> Movin' on up...from sleeping on the floor to the top bunk of one of the many hostel beds. We were, of course, fearless of plummeting to the ground due to our sturdy zipped-together sleeping bags. We cooked out burgers (veggie burgers for 42-Moo ate his own people) that night at the hostel. <br><br> Moo & 42 <br><br><br> <b>Wednesday, May 7</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Kincora <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Kincora <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 0 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 409.2 <br><br> Good morning-time to hit the trail, hike again, get back in the wilderness … or maybe not? <br><br> Moo wasn't feeling too well-nothing serious, just catching up on sleep and R&R-so he spearheaded the double-zero day movement. One hiker was antsy to hit the trail that day, and everyone else was on the fence. In the spirit of Moo's political jobs, 42 called for a secret ballot. After much wrangling and lobbying, the zeros prevailed, and Moo and 42 were into their very first double zero! <br><br> 42 grabbed a book and spent most of the day in bed, while Moo schmoozed. Aaahh-the benefits of a long stay paid off as we moved into the honeymoon suite: the one solo bedroom in the place. <br><br> Can you say, "let's go to the movies, movies, movies!?" The hostel owner was kind enough to make a movie run that night into 42's very own town, Elizabethton. Although all was well with the loving couple, they split (for movie viewing purposes only)-42 saw X-Men 2 and Moo saw Anger Management. It was fun to go to the movies-our first time since we hit the trail. <br><br><br> <b>Thursday, May 8</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Watauga Lake Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Kincora <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 10.5 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 419.7 <br><br> We finally made it out of Kincora after three glorious nights! We had an amazing hike down to Laurel Falls and enjoyed the creek-side rock scramble in a light drizzle. So now we were heading up the steep climb to Pond Flats. By the way, there's no pond (Pond is a guy's name) and it's not flat! <br><br> We made it down to the lake, ate lunch and enjoyed the sunshine. With some other hikers, we went for a dip in the icy cold, but refreshing, water, and then just hung out by the lake for HOURS!! <br><br> By this time, we were all hungry again-after all, it was about 6 p.m. Moo suggested that McDonald's would be a scrumptious dinner option (we were only 2.5 driving miles from town) and was able to get a ride with some local guys at the lake. He returned with 16 double cheeseburgers for us and the group. After that healthy meal, we hiked around the perimeter of the lake to the Lake Watagua Shelter and set up camp. <br><br> Moo and 42 tented by the shelter that night, and at about 3 a.m. were awakened by tremendously long, rumbling thunder and lightning -- an incredible light show. No rain yet, but it was sure on the way. Noting our relatively low elevation, we decided to stick it out in the tent. The rains came in a crashing downpour, the thunder was loud and scary, but the tent proved itself once again, holding strong through the storm. <br><br><br> <b>Friday, May 9</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Iron Mountain Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Watauga Lake Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 14 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 433.7 <br><br> When we awoke, the storm had passed and we felt great. We had a great climb up from the dam and hiked to the Vandeventer Shelter for lunch, where we ate on the rocks behind the shelter-what an awesome view of the lake! Hung a bear line and dried out our very wet tent. Met Katouri and 56, thru hikers from Boone, NC. 42 was very excited to meet another number! <br><br> Hiked to the Iron Mountain Shelter, set up our tent, and had some dinner. While reading the shelter journal, we learned that there had been multiple bear sightings in the last couple days, so we hung our food in a tree, as opposed to in the shelter, and waited for bear. Instead of a grizzly, we got a big ole frog-a really huge frog. 42 discovered it trying to leap into our tent-fortunately, it didn't get to cuddle up with us for the night. <br><br> Moo & 42 <br><br><br> <b>Saturday, May 10</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Abingdon Gap Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Iron Mountain Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 15.9 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 449.6 <br><br> The frog didn't get us in the night. We started off the day by hiking to the Nick Grindstaff monument, a shrine to a famous hermit (Hmm: If the hermit was famous, doesn't that mean he was doing it wrong?). As we rounded a corner, we saw a thick black snake blocking our way. It was looking right at us. Not good. We know nothing about snakes except not to upset them, so we just stood there waiting for it to leave. It started to slither away, so we moved up the trail, but it heard us-it stopped and turned its head around to face us. Then it raised its tail, and the tail started to rattle-really not good! We backed up and gave it plenty of time and space to go its merry way. Finally it got bored with us and slithered away. We flew up the next part of the trail, just in case it changed its mind! <br><br> Later, Moo got us a ride to a local café. The only thing is, one of the vehicles had a deer skeleton in the back, creepy! But a ride's a ride, and generous drivers got us to the Cranberry Cafe. Had some good food, then got a ride back to the trailhead (yes, we made it back on the trail that day). We hiked by an old shelter that's no longer used (called the Holiday Inn), then made it to the real shelter. <br><br><br> <b>Sunday, May 11</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Damascus <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Abingdon Gap Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 10 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 459.6 <br><br> We're on our way into Damascus! A lot of hikers hike the 33 miles into Damascus in one day because it's supposedly "easy,'' but we didn't do that-"easy" is not exactly how we would describe it! But this last day was pretty quick, and hitting a milestone made it even better: We crossed from Tennessee into Virginia this afternoon. When we got to the state line, some other hikers we knew were there waiting for us. They had their bear rope stretched out across the state line like a finish line, and we all sang "Chariots of Fire" as we crossed it. Then we took some photos: First, gut-cam #4. Then Chapeau, our stuffed duck, made an appearance for his photo on the state line. After our state-line rituals, we booked it into Damascus. Got a room at Dave's Place-a private room in a hostel, score! Went to Sicily's for lunch where we had a huge table filled with hikers, some we knew, some we didn't. Ate lots of pizza, listened to good tunes on the jukebox. <br><br> Happy Mothers Day! We both called our moms, and it was great to talk to them. At the hostel Moo found a really cool outfit in the hiker box-a blue flannel shirt and some gray & pink OP shorts (remember them?)-and he donned it so we could go do laundry. He looked really groovy with his long curly hair and fuzzy beard. Did laundry, then on way back went to a spaghetti dinner. We got there at the tail end of it, but there was still some food left. We then headed to the Sidetrack Cafe to relax, then back to the hostel to bed. <br><br><br> <b>Monday, May 12</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Pond Campsite <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Damascus <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 11.7 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 471.3 <br><br> We were absolutely determined to leave Damascus! It was tough-our friends were taking a zero day, how could we resist? But we're strong and we believe, and we made it out of there. The first 1.5 miles were in town, so it didn't feel like hiking. Then we went back into the woods, and it was a gorgeous hike up Straight Mountain, with the rhododendron in full bloom. Had lunch by a stream. Then we came to the first shelter. We wanted to check it out but continue hiking, so we left our packs on the trail as we walked the quarter-mile to the shelter to ensure that we would return. It was a good thing we did that because the shelter was really nice and had an amazing privy, making it way too tempting to stay. But we got back on the trail and rallied onward. Walking along, 42 fell, cutting her hand (she was otherwise OK). Got to a campsite by a pond and pitched our tents on pine needles. Made a campfire and went to bed. <br><br><br> <b>Tuesday, May 13</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Thomas Knob Campsite <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Pond Campsite <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 16.9 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 488.2 <br><br> Today, the trail joined up with the Virginia Creeper Trail for a bit-the Creeper is a bike trail where a train track used to be, crossing over trestles. Beautiful, sunny, windy day. Hiking up White Mountain, we stopped about 2/3 of the way up for lunch, because it was too windy to eat on the top. Moo decided to make some soup and lit the stove on a patch of grass, then realized the grass was burning, so he tried to move it, but some of the alcohol spilled and lit other patches of grass on fire and we had to stomp them out. Finally got the stove under control, but there were a couple of scorched patches-so much for "leave-no-trace" camping. We hiked up the rest of White Mountain and onto Buzzard Rock against the wind. The wind was so strong, at times we felt like we weren't moving at all. We kept running into southbound hikers who were really northbounders slack-packing (hiking without packs) their way into Damascus for trail days, and we kept stopping to talk to them, so it was very slow going but really fun to talk to people we knew and meet others we had heard about or read about in the shelter registers. Finally, after way too many hours for the distance we hiked, we made it to Thomas Knob Shelter on top of Mt. Rogers. A hiker we knew surprised us with strawberry shortcake-trail magic! It was fantastic! We ate it all, then had dinner. It was such a nice night-bright with an almost full moon-that we decided to hike a bit more and camp out. Coming around a corner, we ran into cows blocking the path, basking in the moonlight. Went around them and made it to the campsite, which turned out to be in another cow pasture, so we had to watch out for cow pies as we set up our tents. <br><br><br> <b>Wednesday, May 14</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> VA 603 <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Thomas Knob Campsite <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 12.1 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 500.3 <br><br> Woke up to discover that campsite was absolutely beautiful! And that we hadn't camped on any cow pies, another plus. Started the day with some great hiking in open areas with neat rocks to scramble over. We got to a rock tunnel that we thought was Fatman's Squeeze and took lots of pictures there. Then about a mile later we got to the real Fatman's Squeeze and took another slew of pictures (for the record, Moo was able to make it through both of them with no problem :-). Got to Grayson Highlands and saw a couple of feral ponies! They were adorable, but we weren't sure if they were all right to pet. Then we noticed a little girl, about 8 or so, with her arms flung around one of the ponies' necks and decided if it was OK for her, it was probably safe for us. We got out some gorp (trail mix) and fed it to them, and they ate it right out of our hands. Then they tried to eat it right out of the bag, and nosed around the pockets where the bags were stored. Smart ponies. Soon after, we came across a whole herd of ponies with some foals. Incredible. Fed them more gorp, and they kept coming back for more. We stopped for a quick lunch at Wise Shelter, then we were all ready to get to VA 603, because from there we were going to get a ride back to Damascus for Trail Days, an annual hiker festival in Damascus, VA, where thousands of hikers gather to hang out and have a good time, and lots of equipment reps have tents and there are food vendors, etc. <br><br> We got dropped off at Tent City, an enclosed area where hikers were supposed to set up their tents. It was Wednesday night, and Trail Days wouldn't really get going until Thursday or Friday, so it was relatively calm, and we got a good place for our tents. Went into town to Sicily's for dinner. Then we got offered a ride to the movies, and it was the opening night of The Matrix: Reloaded. The theater was packed, but we were able to get seats. We missed the first couple of minutes, but it didn't matter, it was an excellent experience complete with some theatergoers dressed up as Neo, Trinity, and Smith. Fantastic! While 42 was at the movies, Moo went to the Sidetrack Cafe to hear another hiker play guitar. <br><br><br> <b>Thursday, May 15</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Damascus <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Damascus <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 0 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 500.3 <br><br> Woke up in tent city excited to see what Trail Days had in store for us. We first wandered over to the area where some of the equipment reps were located. Thru-hikers are hard on equipment, and by the time Trail Days rolls around, they invariably have stuff that needs tending, if not replacement. The equipment companies are generally great about taking care of thru-hikers. The reps did us up right. Moo took his pack over to the Gregory tent, where Wayne Gregory himself helped Moo adjust his pack. Both Moo & 42 had their poles tuned up by Leki. 42 had her pack taken care of by the Osprey folks, who sewed up a torn pocket and gave her a smaller hipbelt for free. (You might recall 42 being disgruntled that she hadn't lost any weight. Well, she still hasn't, but her weight must be redistributing itself because she needed a smaller hipbelt. That made her feel a little better.) At the Montrail tent, 42 had the toes of her boots repaired. <br><br> We then headed into town. Tent City, where the hikers are corralled, is about a mile or so from town-probably an attempt to contain the noise and smell of the hikers (no easy task). We hitched a ride to the Dollar General store where we got geared up for days of hanging out in Tent City, buying folding love seats, water guns, lawn decorations, lawn games, and the like. <br><br> We then went to do our laundry. You can tell we're getting used to the hiking life-when we first started hiking, doing laundry was one of our first town chores; now we wait until our second day in town. <br><br> When we got back to Tent City it was still pretty calm. We set up our area with all our lovely purchases. It looked grand. Time to eat! We went to the Mill, but after we were seated, we realized it was a restaurant for real people, not thru-hikers-there were cloth napkins on the table and the prices were for people with gainful employment. So we were totally tacky (read: smart) and left, going to the pizza place, Sicily's, instead. After dinner we went to the Sidetrack Cafe and heard some music. <br><br><br> <b>Friday, May 16</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Damascus <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Damascus <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 0 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 500.3 <br><br> Trail Days was in full gear! Part of Damascus was converted to a fairgrounds area with lots of vendors, equipment reps, food booths, and games. One booth was a ping-pong toss to win a bunny. Some hikers played and won-we saw them wandering around clutching their bunnies. They joked about holding on to their next meal, but we heard they gave the rabbits to some local kids (42 the veggie really hopes that's true). <br><br> We got to do a bit of shopping (usually there's no point because we have to carry everything with us and we don't want the extra weight). 42 bought a cotton town dress-everything we wear on the trail is synthetic, so it feels heavenly! Moo found the perfect hiking wedding band (we left our real ones at home for safe keeping)-it's a silver band with feet running across the middle of it. <br><br> We took advantage of all the food vendors and ate curly fries and pizza and falafel while we listened to music, then we walked around. Although 42 was wearing her new town dress, she must have still looked like a hiker (must have been the bright red Waldies (shoes) she was wearing) because she was stopped by several nonhikers who were curious about 2 things in particular: 1) why are there so many male hikers wearing skirts? and 2) are those shoes (Waldies) comfortable? <br><br> We attended a boot clinic where we learned that our feet take thousands of steps in a hostile environment. It was a bit over the top but got us to sign up for a more intense foot examination later in the weekend. <br><br> After hanging around the fairgrounds all day, we went to the Sidetrack Cafe to hear some music. 42 left Moo there and went back to Tent City, where she met up with a bunch of people to watch the eclipse-not just regular lunar eclipse but one during a full moon, very neat. Tent City was filled with tons of hikers basking in the moonlight, all looking up at the eclipse, a great sight. 42 shared the cookie care packages she had received in the mail and they were all gone in five minutes flat. When Moo got back later, he was bummed because he only got to try a few cookies before they were all gone, but hey, you stay to listen to music and drink beer and blow off eclipse watching, you lose...it's a tough hiking world). Then some of our friends showed up, very excited about a Moo-type plan they had where we'd all get a suite at a nice hotel and enjoy the luxury for a bit. It sounded great, but believe it or not, we opted out. We wanted to experience Trail Days in the thick of things. <br><br><br> <b>Saturday, May 17</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Damascus <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Damascus <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 0 <b>Trip Miles:</b> 500.3 <br><br><br> <b>Sunday, May 18</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Kincora Hiker Hostel -- Dennis Cove <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Damascus <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 0 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 500.3 <br><br><br> <b>Monday, May 19</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Kincora Hiker Hostel -- Dennis Cove <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Kincora Hiker Hostel -- Dennis Cove <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 0 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 500.3 <br><br><br> <b>Tuesday, May 20</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Raccoon Branch Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> VA 603 <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 10 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 510.3 <br><br><br> <b>Wednesday, May 21</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Partnership Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Raccoon Branch Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 13 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 523.3 <br><br><br> <b>Thursday, May 22</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Atkins, VA <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Partnership Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 11.6 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 534.9 <br><br><br> <b>Friday, May 23</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Knot Maul Branch Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Atkins, VA <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 13.9 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 548.8 <br><br><br> <b>Saturday, May 24</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Burke's Garden Ridge <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Knot Maul Branch Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 10.8 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 559.6 <br><br><br> <b>Sunday, May 25</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Helveys Mill Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Burke's Garden Ridge <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 21 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 580.6 <br><br><br> <b>Monday, May 26</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Trent's Campground <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Helveys Mill Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 16.3 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 596.9 <br><br><br> <b>Tuesday, May 27</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Woodshole Hostel <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Trent's Campground <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 13.9 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 610.8 <br><br><br> <b>Wednesday, May 28</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Pearisburg, VA <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Woodshole Hostel <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 10 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 620.8 <br><br><br> <b>Thursday, May 29</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Pearisburg, VA <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Pearisburg, VA <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 0 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 620.8 <br><br><br> <b>Friday, May 30</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Rice Field Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Pearisburg, VA <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 7.3 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 628.1 <br><br><br> <b>Saturday, May 31</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Pine Swamp Branch Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Rice Field Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 12.3 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 640.4 <br><br><br> <b>Sunday, June 1</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Rocky Gap, VA 601 <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Pine Swamp Branch Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 15.5 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 655.9 <br><br><br> <b>Monday, June 2</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Craig Creek Valley, VA 621 <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Rocky Gap, VA 601 <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 16.7 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 672.6 <br><br><br> <b>Tuesday, June 3</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Four Pines Hostel, Catawba, VA624 <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Craig Creek Valley, VA 621 <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 14.6 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 687.2 <br><br><br> <b>Wednesday, June 4</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Tinker Cliffs <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Four Pines Hostel, Catawba, VA624 <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 14.5 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 701.7 <br><br><br> <b>Thursday, June 5</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Daleville, VA <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Tinker Cliffs <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 11 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 712.7 <br><br><br> <b>Friday, June 6</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Fullhardt Knob Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Daleville, VA <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 5 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 717.7 <br><br><br> <b>Saturday, June 7</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Cove Mountain Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Fullhardt Knob Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 19.9 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 737.6 <br><br><br> <b>Sunday, June 8</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Thunder Hill Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Cove Mountain Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 17.2 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 754.8 <br><br><br> <b>Monday, June 9</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> John's Hollow Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Thunder Hill Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 16.3 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 771.1 <br><br><br> <b>Tuesday, June 10</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Buena Vista, VA <br><b>Starting Location:</b> John's Hollow Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 19.4 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 790.5 <br><br><br> <b>Wednesday, June 11</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Seeley-Woodworth Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Buena Vista, VA <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 14 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 804.5 <br><br><br> <b>Thursday, June 12</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Harpers Creek Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Seeley-Woodworth Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 14.3 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 818.8 <br><br><br> <b>Friday, June 13</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Dripping Rock Parking Area, Blue Ridge Parkway <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Harpers Creek Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 13.2 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 832 <br><br><br> <b>Saturday, June 14</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Waynesboro, VA <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Waynesboro, VA <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 0 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 832 <br><br><br> <b>Sunday, June 15</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Rockfish Gap/Waynesboro, VA <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Dripping Rock Parking Area, Blue Ridge Parkway <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 14.5 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 846.5 <br><br><br> <b>Monday, June 16</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Calf Mtn Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Rockfish Gap/Waynesboro, VA <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 7 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 853.5 <br><br> Rain, rain, rain-go away! We've never been more aware of the familiar AT saying "No rain, no Maine." Looks like we're well on our way to Maine! <br><br> We're back! Moo and 42 here-typing on our new Composer PocketMail device. It's 10pm, we're in our tent, seven miles into Shenandoah National Park-oh yeah, and it's raining. <br><br> After three nights in the lovely Quality Inn, we finally returned to sleeping where we like it best-no, not the Plaza, the great outdoors. We had a hard time leaving town like we always do and didn't get into the woods until after 5:00-we've had later starts, but that's up there. But let's back up to the beginning of the day. <br><br> We slept in, which was wonderful. Got up and finally started to get our stuff organized which of course took longer than we thought it would, and we wound up checking out 90 minutes late. Guess what? It was raining! There's a shocker. Nonetheless, we were eager to get back on the trail (read: we had spent enough money at the Quality Inn already). We went to lunch at the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet, resupplied, then grabbed a few minutes on the computer at the library before being picked up by a wonderful trail angel. <br><br> Back into the woods! We only planned to go seven miles, so not that bad to start at 5:15, right? We got a Shenandoah permit and headed in. Before long it started misting-Moo insisted it wasn't raining, even though we were pretty wet. Then the skies began to get darker, and the "mist" fell harder. Then we got to the shelter to find it full so we had to pitch our tents in the mist-ah, it's good to be back in the woods! <br><br> We got the tents up, and then went to have dinner in the shelter. Everyone was trying to sleep, so we had to eat quietly, which of course was impossible. Then to bed, accompanied by the sounds of owls who didn't give a hoot about the rain. <br><br><br> <b>Tuesday, June 17</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Black Rock Hut <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Calf Mtn Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 13 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 866.5 <br><br> We woke up to more rain. Not the usual morning mist, which tends to be mild, but a full rainstorm that made it incredibly hard to get up. We were planning to hit the trail by 8:00, but the thought of packing up a soaking wet tent was pretty discouraging. We finally roused ourselves at 8:30 to see what was going on with everyone else-not much, everyone was dragging because of the weather. We decided to move all of our stuff into the shelter, including our tent with the fly still on it, to try to stay dry. Our plan didn't really work because the tent was already wet and dirty, and we just shoved it in its bag, hoping we'd get shelter space that night. <br><br> On a brighter note: When we left Waynesboro, we brought an extra spiral notebook with us, hoping that we'd come across a shelter with either no register or a nearly-full one so we could leave our journal as the shelter register (Each shelter has a register where hikers sign in and leave messages for each other, and when the register is full, someone will send it to whomever left it, making a great souvenir.) The shelter we were at had no register, so we were able to unload ours. Woo-hoo! It's the little things that keep us going. <br><br> Then the day took a very sad turn. One of our friends decided that with all the rain it just wasn't fun anymore, and he was going get off the trail. No, no, NO! We tried to talk him out of it without putting too much pressure on him, but in the end he decided to go. We had a wonderful time hiking with him and were really sad to have him go-we'll miss you, Sleepy Floyd! We still hope you'll surprise us by popping up on the trail again. <br><br> What with Sleepy Floyd leaving and the never-ending rain, we were pretty grim as we started hiking. We were also running late-it was after 11:00am, so much for our plan to hike 20 miles! But we're always ready to amend our plans, so we decided we'd hike 13 miles to the next shelter and stay there, and hopefully we'd get shelter space. <br><br> The rain let up a bit as we hiked, but it was still misty and, despite the fact that it was the middle of June, cold and windy. We hurried through to the shelter without really stopping. As we got close to the shelter, the skies opened up again and it started to pour once more, and of course the shelter was full when we got there-arg! That meant we'd have to pitch our wet, dirty tent in the rain. With the rain pouring down, we were trying to get it all done quickly so the tent wouldn't get soaked. Moo got his part done, then 42 was trying to get her section done, and she must have pulled too hard because next thing she knew, Moo's part of the tent was unstaked and came flying over to her. She fell to the ground laughing in the pouring rain. Then we rallied and staked the tent again-turns out that we found better places to stake the tent, so good came of it. We went into the shelter to have dinner without getting drenched. In the middle of our meal, our musician friend whipped out his guitar and treated us to a mini-concert. Just the lift we needed. Went back to our tent and were in bed by 8:30pm. <br><br><br> <b>Wednesday, June 18</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Simmons Gap plus <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Blackrock Hut <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 17.1 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 883.6 <br><br> *** BEAR ALERT!***<br> When we woke up, we noticed something was strange: it wasn't raining out. It wasn't even misting. That was a shocker, because the forecast called for several more days of rain, and the way things had been going, we expected at least that. Our tent was still wet and dirty, but at least we were dry. We hit the trail on the early side- 8:30-because Moo had woken 42 at about 6:30 without telling her how early it was. <br><br> As we hiked, the sun came out! What a lift to our spirits. We actually had some views, very nice. Saw a deer with a fawn who had white polka dots, so cute! They weren't scared of us at all, and moved only a few feet away as we neared them. <br><br> After about seven miles we came to the Loft Mountain Campground-the Shenandoahs have several campgrounds with tent sites, stores, and restaurants, and this was one of them. We were psyched to get a hot meal, but it turns out that the store and restaurant were a mile away-too far for us to walk (since that mile would not get us any closer to Maine), so we decided just to eat what we were carrying and lighten our packs. Before we started eating, though, we took advantage of the sunshine and hung up our bear rope to dry out our tent, fly, tarp, air mattresses, sleeping bags, socks…basically everything we were carrying. Then, as we were about to make lunch, Moo spied a familiar truck near our campsite. Moo and Otto (the truck's owner) went and got burgers while 42 watched our stuff, and she snacked a bit because she figured there wouldn't be anything for her to eat. Surprise-Moo came back with a garden burger for her, yum! We wound up taking a three-hour lunch break. It was productive though: all our stuff was dry, for the first time in days. <br><br> We got back on the trail and went to the next shelter for dinner. It was still nice out, so we decided to hike a few more miles after dinner. We walked pretty quickly for the first couple of miles, trying to cover ground before the rain. We crossed Simmons Gap and decided to go another mile or so and then find a place to camp. As we headed back into the woods, we heard a tree branch break somewhere nearby, but neither of us said anything. A minute or so later, we heard another tree branch break from the same direction, and we both looked over to see a big ole BLACK BEAR speeding down a tree near the part of the trail we had recently crossed. We looked up, up, up the tree, and there in the crooks of a couple of branches were a couple of cubs hanging out. We wanted to watch the cubs, who were so cute, but we realized that a black bear + cubs = get the heck out of there! The only problem was, we didn't know where the mama bear went after she got down from the tree. We decided to keep going, and we flew down that trail! After about a half-mile or so we saw some deer and that comforted us-deer wouldn't placidly hang out in the woods near us if an enraged black bear was bounding our way, right? We kept on going, though, just in case our theory wasn't right. <br><br> A little while later we came upon an ideal camping site and decided to pitch our tent. Believe it or not, we got the tent set up before it started to rain. We hung everything on a bear rope FAR away from us, and fell asleep to the pitter-patter of rain on our tent. <br><br><br> <b>Thursday, June 19</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Bearfence Mountain Hut <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Simmons Gap plus <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 16.7 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 900.3 <br><br><br> <b>Friday, June 20</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Skyland Resort, Shenandoah National Park <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Bearfence Mountain Hut <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 16.1 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 916.4 <br><br><br> <b>Saturday, June 21</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Pass Mountain Hut <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Skyland Resort, Shenandoah National Park <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 10.7 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 927.1 <br><br><br> <b>Sunday, June 22</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Hogwallow campsite <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Pass Mountain Hut <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 16.6 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 943.7 <br><br><br> <b>Monday, June 23</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Manassas Gap Shelter <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Hogwallow campsite <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 20.4 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 964.1 <br><br><br> <b>Tuesday, June 24</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Roller Coaster stealth camp <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Manassas Gap Shelter <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 15 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 979.1 <br><br><br> <b>Wednesday, June 25</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Blackburn AT Center <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Roller Coaster stealth camp <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 16.4 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 995.5 <br><br><br> <b>Thursday, June 26</b> <br><b>Destination:</b> Harpers Ferry, WV <br><b>Starting Location:</b> Blackburn AT Center <br><b>Today's Miles:</b> 12 <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 1007.5 <br><br> Once again, we're behind in our trail journal, but we're trying to catch up. It's now June 30, and we're in NYC about to leave to head back to the trail after a few days off. We've updated some dates in mid-June, and our plan is to update as we go along every few days, and to try to fill in from mid-May to mid-June as well. <br><br> Quick update: We made it to Harper's Ferry, WV, on June 26-about 1008 miles! We had a wonderful few days off the trail seeing family and friends, and were looking forward to getting back in the woods. On July 1, at the Appalachian Trail Conference National Headquarters, we met CWLA President and CEO Shay Bilchik, some members of the CWLA staff, staff and children from Burlington United Methodist Family Services, Janet Craig from the Children's Home Society of West Virginia, for a press event, which was covered on a local station. Shortly thereafter, we got back on the trail, heading from West Virginia to Maryland, then across the Mason-Dixon line into Pennsylvania. <br><br><br> <b>Sunday, July 6</b> <br><b>Trip Miles:</b> 1086.3 <br><br> Made it to Pine Grove Furnace State Park, PA today-the halfway point to Maine-1086.3 miles! Woo-hoo! In celebration, Moo joined the 1/2-Gallon Club by devouring a 1/2-gallon of chocolate ice cream in 29 min, 25 sec-a crazy thru-hiker tradition. <div align="left"> <table width="150" border="0" align="right" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border:1px solid #666"> <tr> <td colspan="3" bgcolor="#99CC99" style="padding: 5px 0px 5px 0px"> <div align="center"> <input name="Submit2" type="submit" onClick="MM_goToURL('parent','https://www.cwla.org/sec/donate/Donatehikingforkids.htm');return document.MM_returnValue" value="Make a Pledge"> <br> </div></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#FFCC99"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <input name="imageField3" type="image" src="images/camera.gif" alt="View Video" width="12" height="12" border="0"> Video</font></div></td> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#FFCC99"> </td> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#FFCC99"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <input name="imageField22" type="image" src="images/audio.gif" alt="Listen to Soundclip" width="14" height="10" border="0"> Audio</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#FFCC99"><div align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1"><a href="http://www.storylinegroup.com/video/hf100k.wmv">100K</a> <a href="http://www.storylinegroup.com/video/hf300k.wmv">300k</a></font></font></div></td> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#FFCC99"> </td> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#FFCC99"><div align="center"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.storylinegroup.com/cwla/cwlaaudio.wma">16k</a></font></div></td> </tr> </table> <br> Happy Trails! 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