Michener Cabin - MLK Weekend

Friday 12Jan07 - Sunday 14Jan07

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip.
That started from a parking lot,
down a narrow strip.
The mate was a mighty hikin' man,
the leader brave and sure.
Twelve hikers hit the trail that day,
for a twelve mile tour, a twelve mile tour...
The sky started getting dark,
the hiking group was exhausted.
If not for the beam of a bright head lamp,
the hikers would be losted; the hikers would be losted.
The group took refuge in the warmth of Michener Cabin PATC,
with Gilligan (Tunapants), the skipper too (Keith),
the Millionaire (Ted), and his Wife (Mary),
the Movie Star (Val), the Professor (Ron S) and Mary Ann (Terri),
here at Tunapants' Cabin.

Also present were the Chef (Art), the lumberjack (Tate), the fruit man (Howard), the trailblazer (Rachel), Mother Teresa (Catherine), and myself. Paul the Tenderloin Smuggler was also with us briefly.

So this is the tale of our castaways,
they're here for a long, long time.
They'll have to make the best of things,
it's an uphill climb.
The first mate and his skipper too,
will do their very best,
to make the others comfortable,
in the cozy mountain nest.
No phones, no lights, no motor cars,
not a single luxury (except apple cake, THANKS TESS!).
Like Robinson Crusoe,
it's primitive as can be.
So join us here each week my friend,
you're sure to get a smile.
From thirteen stranded Castaways,
Here at Tunapants' Cabin.


Our trip started Friday evening. Upon arriving at the parking lot for the cabin access trail, Tess and Steve (Michener cabin caretakers) were waiting for us. Michener cabin had caught on fire a few weeks before and Tess, Steve, Keith, and many others had worked very hard to get the cabin back in shape for our use this weekend. Tess offered to take some of our stuff back in her truck. Her truck filled quickly. When we got to the cabin, the fire was already roaring and there was fresh apple cake waiting. In the bunk rooms, the pillows had little chocolates on the pillows and the sheets were turned down. (OK, not really, but with the hospitality we saw, it was just like that). The cabin had one large main room and two small bunk rooms with 1/4 inch plywood between the rooms. There were about 8 single bunks in each room. The boys took the right, the girls took the left. Friday night, Tuna showed up about 8pm. He had the meal for Friday night, so Terri and Val got started cooking. Friday night was spaghetti. Friday night we had Catherine, Howard, Keith, Terri, Ron S., Val, myself, and Tuna. There was guitar playing, and a little bit of drinking. Saturday morning's breakfast was eggs and bacon and hash browns.

Saturday morning Paul, Art, Rachel, Tate, Mary and Ted showed up for the hike. We did a car shuttle up to Lion Kiln Road, just north of Pine Furnace. We hiked about 15 miles leaving the car at 11am, getting back to the cabin by 5 pm. Some others did a smaller loop from the cabin. Saturday night was an extravaganza of food and drink. Despite not having the main course of pork tenderloin, we still had too much food and plenty of leftovers. The main entertainment Saturday night was Tuna on the guitar, Howard on the Durian, and Keith on the spoons. We started the night by broadening our horizons and tasting a Durian. To pull some highlights from that website, I'll try to explain the sensation:

"the smell of the ripe fruit is certainly at first disagreeable"; more recent descriptions by westerners can be more graphic. The English novelist Anthony Burgess famously said that dining on durian is like eating vanilla custard in a latrine.

Travel and food writer Richard Sterling says:

"... its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away. Despite its great local popularity, the raw fruit is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels, subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast Asia."

The unusual odor has prompted many people to search for an accurate description. Comparisons have been made with the civet, sewage, stale vomit, skunk spray, and used surgical swabs.

I'd say those are pretty accurate descriptions of what we encountered. Howard brought the Durian on request by Keith, who had dared Terri to try it. She did, as did the rest of us. The rest of the night turned into a game of hiding the thing in various people's sleeping areas. The thing can't be hidden because its smell is as strong as a skunk. You can smell it from yards away, even if you're upwind. Anything that touches it acquires the odor. It moved from the girls' room to the boys' room and back several times throughout the evening, then at 4am when I went to the latrine, it was under the front porch in a frying pan. After that, the next time I saw it was under Keith's van. Someone moved it to the bed of my truck at one point, and under Tuna's car at some point, the last I saw it, it was back under Keith's van with a beer bottle hanging out of it's mouth (that was Sunday afternoon after the hike). Saturday's entertainment also including the Ravens losing. It was most enjoyable for some of us, and not so much for others. After guitar playing in the swing on the front porch, Keith, Catherine, Tate, Art, Ron S., Rachel, and I played spoons. This is a game not unlike musical chairs with playing cards. The objective each round is to have a spoon in your hand. There is one less spoon then there are people playing. The game can be violent at times. Our group was very spirited to say the least. Rachel went flying out of her chair in an early round, and Art and Tate almost wrestled across the floor for one of the spoons. It was fun.

On Sunday, Val, Rachel, Catherine and I drove to Rt 30 and hiked 12 miles back to the cabin from the road. The sections we covered on both Saturday and Sunday covered almost the entire PATC Map 2-3 of the AT. Saturday we had passed the halfway point on the Appalachian Trail. That was cool to see.

The weather the entire weekend was to die for. It was the perfect temperature for hiking. Saturday night, most of us slept out of our sleeping bags with the windows opened. I got up in the middle of the night to use the latrine and went in a tank top and shorts and it felt wonderful. Must have been 60 degrees or warmer at 4am on January 14th. Crazy. But I'm not complaining. The very little rain we did get while hiking lasted for no longer than 10-15 minutes at a time and was so light that you could ignore it and not put on rain gear if you didn't want to. The weekend was perfect. Keith and Terri did a lot of work to organize the trip, kudos to both of them. We all had a blast. Cham was sorely missed - hopefully you can make it next time.

Michener Cabin

New Year's at Boons Run

31Dec06 - 1Jan07

Sunday the weather forecast was calling for heavy rain, so we abandoned our plans of heading to Kennedy peak and instead went further south into the southern half of the Massanuttens. The only shelter in the southern half is Boons Run Shelter. It is the Hilton of back country shelters. There was enough space to have a disco party in there. If we had a DJ and a few more men, it would have been party central. Keith, Ellen, Terri, and I were ready for a New Year's celebration. After a mile hike from the vans, we arrived at the Hilton. We dropped our gear and began gathering firewood. Then we took a day hike up to Kaylor Knob. On the way back, Keith pointed out the CCC markers which use some ancient form of hieroglyphics to denote mileage. Keith translated the markers for us. My GPS told me exactly how much mileage was covered. When we got back to the shelter, we set about happy hour. There were appetizers and beers. Keith got the fire roaring and then we sat eating, talking, and waiting for midnight. After we had eaten as much as we could, we checked the clock. It was 5:30. We had a long way to go. Keith entertained us with stories from his and Ted's younger days. We discussed our opinions on the best way to fight off a grizzly with a pocket knife. We discussed under which circumstances it would be appropriate to leave someone behind on the trail, and which circumstances required hauling the injured party along.

Just before midnight we set off some fireworks. Keith brought the cheapest ones he could find, but they were festive. We heard on the radio that 2007 was officially here. Then we went to bed. Through the night it rained pretty hard and the rivers swelled. The temperature increased overnight, when I got up mid-evening to go to the bathroom, I walked barefooted and removed some layers of clothes before I got back into bed. It was too warm with two pugs in my sleeping bag.

The next day, we hiked up 3rd mountain and down to the road. We were surprised with the most beautiful views I've seen in VA. The low-lying clouds gave us a real treat. Look at the pictures and see for yourself. Also to note: never borrow a bandana from Ellen. Had a blast on this trip, it was a great time.

New Years 2007