Day 59: Swimming Pools

We weren't planning on staying in Pearisburg, but after a good pizza buffet session I didn't much feel like hiking on. So I talked Becca into staying at the motel in town that had a swimming pool.

Great decision on my part I must say ;)

The weather was perfect and the water, despite being just opened, was not too cold for an occasional dip. So we read on the deck, drank a few new to us local beers, and read. Idyllic.

What was not idyllic was the. Hines buffet we had previously turned away from based on the storefront looking sketchy. But other hikers said it was ok, so we went. I now remember why it has been so long since I last partook in a AYCE Chinese buffet. It is an embodiment of all that I'd wrong with America. Gross excess at the cost of quality. Not even my hiker stomach could look past it.

The bed was super bouncy, a nice change from the ground. I slept the best I have slept in a long time.

Day 58: Mile 626

Just another hiking day pretty much. Except we had a side trip to the Woods Hole hostel, a gorgeous place. We had giant smoothies, fresh baked bread, a block of cheese and some sodas before leaving. The place was great, but overrated I believe. All the guides gush about it and it's history, but I don't know. Maybe we should have stayed for the dinner, but it was served later than we wanted and we had more miles to hike. They were nice enough to let me use their phone to call Granite Gear customer service in order to get a new business kle for my pack. Without hesitation the customer service rep sent a buckle to the HoJo in Daleville we plan to stay at. So I say thankya, sai.

Day 57: Next stop, 700

We hit 600 miles early in the day and flew on to the road where a measly 0.5 miles away lay Trent's Grocery. A soda filled oasis with a deep fryer, our principal motivation for the day. 

Somehow after 14 miles to that road and a few hours of a stop there we made it almost 5 more miles into the woods with a 6 pack of Devils Backbone Striped Bass Pale Ale. Our longest day yet, due to the very favorable terrain.

Day 56: That ain't rain

The forest seems to amplify rain. The lightest sprinkle is so much louder under a canopy of broad leaves. So when we hear the tinkling in the night, it seems like maybe it's starting to rain. Except... wait... the tent is not wet at all. So what's that sound?

In high school my chemistry teacher brought in a cage full of fat green caterpillars which he said grow to be Luna moths. He said at his house he would let the caterpillars eat in an open cage, and when they turned to the beautiful bright green adult moths, they would fly around his house. But he didn't worry about the adults eating anything in his house, because as adults the Luna moth doesn't even have a digestive system or mouth. No, they have only one goal.

It's during the caterpillar stage when they do all their eating. And that's all they do. Eat and poop. He said that during the height of the Luna caterpillar season, their pooplets drop from the trees and sound like rain.

Mystery solved. Today, on the trail, every once in awhile, the trail would be littered with brown grains that were most certainly caterpillar pooplets. When the wind blew, it would dislodge the pooplets caught in the folds of leaves and the dry rain would commence again.

The poop rain eventually did give way to an afternoon shower though. We made it almost 17 miles today before calling it quits during a lull in the showers so we could set up our tent and keep it dry.

Day 55: Hiking the rim

Today was the neato-est day yet, geologically speaking. We climbed to the rim of a crater, where a unique AT shelter sits looking over the ancient formation. The shelter itself is an old fire rangers cabin, and one of the few if not only fully enclosed AT shelters with a solid door.

The view from the shelter overlooks Burke's Garden, a 4 mile wide by 8 mile long crater formed by a sinkhole collapse. Recently, in Branson, a sinkhole opened up on a golf course. I think they said it was about an 80 foot radius, and its considered a moderately sized hole. So I guess it's safe to say that this Burke's Garden is freaking ginormous.

The crater is now home to a lot of farms and even has an airport. I hope to remember to research it more in town. I was fascinated by it. How old was it? How big was it before collapse. Do they think it was one massive cave?

As we hiked for about 8 miles of the SEastern rim, we were on the side of a mountain that just wasn't there anymore. Instead, large limestone rocks reached into the sky and just ended. Ended usually with a 40 foot drop to the forest floor that then gently sloped to the farm valley below.

We eventually crossed the rim and hiked below the fall line and through giant  boulders that at on time probably were extended arms of the sharply slanting rocks that jutted out from the wall above us.

Then, suddenly it was over, and we descended steeply away from the garden. Again, though we spent most of the day at the same elevation, the hike along the rim was hardly ever flat, and 15 miles was surprisingly hard to complete.

Day 54: Virginia is not flat

I learned long ago that just because you don't change your elevation much, doesn't mean the trail is easy or flat. Just because the climb is only 600 ft, it does not mean it's not steep. And if you stack a bunch of these climbs back to back, they seem more exhausting than a single long up, followed by a long down. Such was the case of today's hike, and we only made it 12 miles or so before deciding not to climb the next mountain. We had water nearby and a flat spot, which is not guaranteed for several miles uphill. But we passed a sign that said we are a quarter of the way to Katahdin, if the trail is not 2195 this year. But we can say we are cLose to a quarter way point at least. Goodnight.

Day 53: Hike through the hangover

Despite last night's tale, we managed to hike nearly 18 miles today. It was gorgeous hiking too. On the way to the highway underpass with restaurants, there was a settlers museum we passed and in the one room school, there were Coolers of soda for hikers from a local church.

At the highway, we ate at The Barn, and though the rumours of craft beer were false, the food was ok and we stayed there for a few hours to escape the midday heat. On the way out we hit up a gas station for ice cream and I got some new sunglasses.

Now at camp, we are in a lot of foot pain. We resupplied for an 80 mile stretch, our longest yet, and I'm afraid we may have overloaded ourselves. We need to figure out a way to lighten the load.

Day 52: town trapped

The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblances to real people are purely coincidental.

The plan was to hike 3 miles, take the shuttle.to town, resupply, do laundry and have a few beers and eat, then catch shuttle back, then hike a bit. All except that last part happened. The few beers we had in town made us lazy. So Becca hitched back to town for more beers with a dude named JP, who carries a foam sword and seems to be the leader of a rowdy group pretending to be a Scottish clan. They are hilarious and Becca and him made it back to the shelter with 90 beers. 90.

Unfortunately the party was caught when a ranger snuck up on us and ticketed everyone holding a beer. We were not. We were being good. Drinking alcohol is not allowed at this shelter. Who knew? (See pic)

Well he did make someone dump out their 24 pack but we had hid our stash sorta well and I made sure to sit in front of it ASAP to cover the unhidden part.  When he left bloo and I transferred everyone's safe beer to the shelter loft, and burned the boxes. And despite the Rangers warning that he would be back, the party continued and in fact grew. I'd say maybe over 40 people were there by the end of the night. It was crazy.

We tried to go to sleep "early" but when we went to the loft, 7 or more people were talking and drinking there, so we packed up our stuff and pitched the tent.

When will we learn? I guess one party every week or two ain't bad. It will allow us to partake in the social experience of the trail. We did have a lot of fun and escaped citations by using common sense. I mean come on, all you have to do is pour the beer into a cup. Don't flaunt and they don't mind.

Also, my socks have developed a lot of holes, so I got some awesome new ones in the girls department at Walmart. They are more reflective of my personality than those dull gray ones. Though I doubt they will last as long.

Day 51: Finding our pace at mile 528

We woke up at 5:45 this morning. Becca's alarm has been set for 545 for a long time actually, but this time we finally actually got up. Lucky too, because it was barely sprinkling when we left camp but soon turned to real rain. Hiking in rain is great. hiking in windy stormy shit weather is not. This was the good kind. There weren't any pics to take due to rain and fog and the terrain was mellow and densely forested anyway.

We had to choose our mileage. 16 miles to a camp spot before partnership shelter. Or go to partnership 3 miles farther and be forced to sleep in a shelter with a ton of other hikers. Plus these other hikers will be most likely partying because partnership is a unique shelter because it's right by a road and the pizza Hut in Marion VA delivers to the visitor center 0.1 miles from the shelter.

We got to the planned campsite before 3! So, go on to the shelter? Hell no! We set up tent and are laying in our sleeping bags. Trail Lyfe!

We have decided that this pace is awesome. From now on, we plan on trying to go 15 miles a day. Every mile that we put in over 15 goes into "a bank." When we have 15 miles in the bank, we can take a zero. Anything under fifteen, we subtract though. Resupply days don't count. Honestly, we might throw this whole plan out the window in a few weeks. But for now, it's motivation. It's also going to help for planning mail drops and we will finally update the care package information.

Day 50: 500!

Our camping spot is so declared "Best Campsite Yet" and receives a gold medal of beauty and peacefulness. We liked it too much to wake up early and so we slept in.

But not too late, we had ponies to see and touch and miles to hike after all.

There were (fat) ponies aplenty as we hiked through the Highlands and went through rock tunnels and then...

We passed mile 500 of the AT! And some genius marked this milestone with a 500 made of pony pooplets! Amazeballs.

Then we hiked some more. And some more.

At a parking lot right before the last climb of the day and car pulled in and a nice lady got out and said, "Anybody want a beer?"! She was on a mission to be sneaky and leave a cooler of beer for her fiancé, who was hiking this section, so that when he finished he would have a nice surprise. Well she gave away a few to us thru hikers in the lot and moved on.

Now we are enjoying dinner.

Day 49: Inside Ponyland

We did about 14 miles today, almost all of it a gradual uphill. A few miles back we made.it into Ponyland. The Grayson Highlands are known for a pack of feral ponies that are supposedly quite fond of hikers. Because of our sweaty, salty skin. But when we first crossed the road, then entered the gate and began climbing the bald, all I saw were gross sunbaked cow patties. I wasn't sure if the Intel we.got was real or if maybe we had yet more miles to hike before entering Ponyland. Soon however, we saw the tell tale signs of ponies. Pony sized pooplets.

But the weather was nasty as we hiked our way past 5000 feet, until just about the moment we got out of the woods and in to what must be the Highlands proper. The sun greeted us and so did a pack of Ponies! Becca says everyone up here is giddy with pony excitement.  I admit it, I am too. Becca not so much. She says they are just small horses. She's right of course, they are small horses with lumps of crap in their hair, but they are also PONIES! AND THEY HAVE PONY SIZED PONIES WITH THEM!!

We cooked up our fanciest meal yet, a backpackers pantry Thai peanut rice and veggies with added chicken. Bam!

Then we finally got to see the sunset in the backcountry. It's been a while. You know, the whole green tunnel thing. So we went crazy with pictures.

Right when we were about to lay down and read ourselves to sleep we heard the strange sound of grass being ripped from the ground right outside our tent. It was a mama with her hilarious baby.

We took some pics and the baby would get.curious and get close.to the tent and then freak out and run around in circles and jump straight up in the air and paw.at its.moms face. It was the cutest. It spazzed out like kevins dog jolene. The best.

Day 48: 2 miles into Damascus, 14 miles out

First off, let's just say all those feelings of.missing SWard have nearly disappeared after Adam messaged me this picture of her eating a boatload of sushi. How rude! ( Stephanie tanner voice)

We went in to damascus for a tiny resupply and breakfast. Again, it was weird passing through the nearly empty (some vendor tents and trailers were still there) town after the craziness of Trail daze. It was also empty of blocks of cheese, and we didn't want to carry our packs all the way to food city place. So no more cheese for this leg of the journey.

Then we had a huge breakfast at a cheap diner and enjoyed town coffee. Yumm. I miss real half n half.

Then on to Subway where the wonderfully incompetent sandwich maker stacked our slbread with loads of pepperoni. That made an excellent late lunch.

We are camped out under an old railroad bridge that now is the Virginia creeper bike trail. Cool old wood architecture that the trail used to follow. Now the trail shares the bridge with the bikes.