Day 144: Slack back to Pearisburg

Start: Peter’s Mountain Trailhead (AT mi 657). Stop: Pearisburg, VA (AT mi 637). Today’s miles: 20 miles. Total AT mileage: 1554.5 miles.

I slept so so good! I think it was a combination of the full belly and the incredible mattress. When my watch alarm started it’s vibrating, it took all of my willpower to ignore it, and I mean all of it.
I got out of bed at 6:20, grabbed my toiletry ditty bag and walked over to the bathhouse. I handled business, brushed my teeth and hair, then came back to my private room to quickly dress and load up my day pack, which I love by the way, it’s one of my favorite and most useful purchases!

What I took: my umbrella, rain jacket, a liter of water, a large Gatorade, my water filter and the liter collapsible bag (not the cnoc and not as good as the cnoc, when it doesn’t have holes in it-but this little bag works for now), toilet paper, my kula cloth (hooked to the outside of the day pack, this is the little pee cloth thing, the TP is just for number 2s these days), headlamp, Garmin Inreach, an egg salad sandwich, and some pickle slices. Ha. What a combination.

Doc drove me through the Hardee’s drive thru-I got 2 egg and cheese biscuits, she didn’t want anything. And then we carried on to the trailhead she picked me up from yesterday. I got started right at 7:30. By 7:40 I passed a shelter.. I could see the couple, The Praise Team, inside their tent, and a couple other people at the shelter that I didn’t recognize. I threw up a wave and carried on.

The trail swiftly started climbing, most of which was switchbacks. I was grateful, not only for the ease switchbacks create, but also for the heart pumping the climb was creating-warming immediately up. It was chilly! I think the temperatures over night were in the high 40s, so it was maybe 50 degrees by now. While it was cold when I stopped moving, I was also extremely excited over the lack of bugs and spider webs!

The climb seemed to fly by. Once at the top the trail continued along the ridgeline, all of which seemed to be under tree cover. I passed several campsites that seemed less than desirable, and then the trail became overgrown with briars, huge flower stalks (which I liked but also hated tearing through and damaging), and then for fun there were boulders and ankle turning rocks thrown in.

It was pretty frustrating though that chunk of things, and I remember thinking how much worse this would have been yesterday after I was already tired and over it. I think I made the right call to bail yesterday. If I wasn’t completely convinced right then, it was most definitely confirmed by the time I reached the campsite I would have been aiming for yesterday.

Thankfully, there was some open fields with gorgeous views that I happily soaked in. I ate lunch sitting on a rock overlooking the cities below. A bit later, I crossed the campsite I was supposed to stay at yesterday. It was so covered with downed trees that I could barely figure out exactly where it was! In the daylight! And I never found the spring.. imagine if I had shown up there last night at 7:30, with the sun gone and my headlamp on. It would have been a disaster!

I continued past it, continuously thanking God that whatever came over me yesterday did, and that I listened to that voice telling me it was ok to get a ride to town. Almost 2 miles after that, across another gorgeous field, I came to a shelter with an incredible campsite overlooking the city below. It was STUNNING! This is where Moose and Soundscape pushed to last night. I can’t imagine have been able to go 2 more miles as late as I would have been hiking. Both of those guys are faster than me though, so I’m sure they got the full beauty of this site before the sun left the sky. I can only imagine how incredible that sunset and sunrise had to be.

The next 8.6 miles was basically downhill. Parts were steep, parts required me to jog down a bit. All of it was fast moving and very refreshing! There was some bridge crossings over the New River, which looked beautiful from above. I finally made it to the pick up parking lot at 3pm. 20 miles by 3pm. Hell. Yes. Doc came and got me. I have to tell you, I quite like this lady. She’s wonderful!

When we arrived back at the hostel, Cactus was there! She introduced me to the folks she was hiking with/around.. Bones, Zebra, HappyFeet, Sunshine, Mash, and MashedPotatoes. LongShot zeroed today, so he was still here along with his friend (I forget his name). I showered, did laundry, and a group of us went to Mexican. It was just as good today as it was yesterday, although today I wasn’t nearly as ravenous. The company made today that much better, though.

After dinner, most of us quickly went to the grocery store. Many did their resupply, I just had to pick up stuff for tomorrow’s slackpack. When I realized how quick I was doing the 20 miles today, I had text Doc and told her I wanted to do the 26.8 mile slack pack tomorrow. I decided originally thinking that it would put me with Lizard the following day-but I quickly realized even with the big day I was a full day behind her. Dammit. BUT, I decided to do it anyway so I’d ONLY be a day behind her and not 2!

Once back at the hostel, LongShot made a campfire and most of us sat around it for awhile. When I started getting sleepy I decided to say goodnight and head to my room.. to write this all up so I can now say goodnight to you, too. Tomorrow will be a long day! Here’s to sleeping well in this comfy bed!! Sweet Dreams!