Category: Long Distance Trails

Start: Niday Shelter (AT mi 687.8). Stop: War Spur Shelter (AT mi 669.4). Today’s miles: 18.4 miles. Total AT mileage: 1523.7 miles.

I set my alarm for 6, so I could get up and out early. It didn’t happen. I didnt get up until 6:50, mainly because I was warm and outside of my cocoon was cold, and I wanted no part in it.

Finally, I gave in and got moving. This cooler weather is not helping my disdain for waking up..
Overall I did sleep well, once I got warm. I packed and then walked over to the picnic table to eat my breakfast.. Soundscape kindly got my food bag down for me this morning. I didn’t take long to eat, mainly because I was cold.. I think I might have mom bring my mug with her when she comes to visit in a few weeks. Then again, I might just get a new one.. it looks like warm food and coffee is going to need to make a comeback. Not only for its warmth, but also for more calories.

I’m just not staying full out here this week.
The sun was shining and it was a start to another gorgeous, cool and breezy day. The sky was robins egg blue without a cloud in sight. I think I randomly smiled a lot more than I normally do, which is often, but today just seemed to keep a smile plastered on my face. The first part of the day included a climb in deep woods with no views. About 2 miles in, I had to detour to dig a hole.. such is life.

The top of the mountain was anticlimactic, except for a sign reading “Eastern Continental Divide.” It got rocky from there, with some sporadic views. The trail was very overgrown for a large part of the mileage on top of this mountain, and several times I had to pull out my app to figure out if I was even still on trail or if I had gotten side tracked some how.

The downhill was steep, but thankfully the valley between then mountains went through more fields and pastures. This area was my favorite of the day. Rolling hills, trees in the distance, the skinny path to follow.. I loved it! The sky was so blue and the sun felt so good, I was in heaven. When I came to the gate taking me back into the woods, I crossed paths with the Keffer Oak tree, the second largest tree on the Appalachian Trail! Pretty cool, especially with how much I love trees in general.

From the huge oak, the trail went past a road and then started climbing again. There was an area around Laurel Creek that required crossing the creek. After the recent storm, that baby is rushing! One crossing caused me to take pause, as I was worried my shoes wouldn’t grasp the steep rock on the other side and I’d slide back down into the water.. I managed it ok, and left with dry feet, but because of the almost 450 miles on these shoes, I went ahead and messaged mom when I got service and asked her to mail the new shoes to me. I can’t wait 3 more weeks with this pitiful tread.

From the creek area, the trail started to steeply climb up to Kelly Knob. It was so overgrown in areas that I didn’t even waste the time to go to the view point. But when I realized I had full service, I sat on a log in full sunshine for about 45 minutes uploading pictures and updating yesterday’s blog. I might not have time to do that tomorrow since I’ll be going a lot farther tomorrow.. actually, as I’m thinking on it, I better make myself get up earlier, too. But who knows,I may have to night hike tomorrow evening or just stop early. There’s only so much daylight these days.. and it’s only getting shorter. That’s a terrifying thought! Cold and dark does not sound fun.

Anyway. I finished slowly hiking to the shelter by 6:15pm. My feet were aching and the rocks had them pretty angry at me. While parts were pretty, it was mostly unremarkable, really. I still enjoyed myself though. I picked a spot for my tent, I’m right in between a couple I’ve never met, the praise team is their collective name.. and Soundscape. It kinda stinks we have to be this close, but it’s the only spots here. Also, Moose, a SOBO that was at the shelter last night is staying in this shelter, too.

After setting up home, Soundscape and I ate dinner at the picnic table with Moose. The couple had already eaten and were watching a show in their tent. I ended up eating fast and putting my food bag in the air to hurry up and get into my tent and into my quilt to warm up. I’m warmer than last night, but not by much. I prefer this, being cooler in general. It makes the hiking nicer and gets rid of the bugs.. and nothing sucks more than bugs-and trying to sleep all hot and sticky. This coolness just requires a warm up time.
Ok, that’s all I know for today. Clearly I’m less chatty when I’m cold.. sorry about that.

Goodnight, y’all.

Start:War Spur Shelter (AT mi 669.4). Stop: Peter’s Mountain Trailhead (AT mi 657). Today’s miles: 12.4 miles. Total AT mileage: 1542.1 miles.

Y’all. I was supposed to hike 23.8 miles today. Instead I hardly hiked 12 before deciding to bail and praying my new plan would work out..

I started off well. I got up at 6:50 and rushed to pack and eat breakfast. Soundscape and Moose were already gone by then. I had my pack on and was walking out of camp by 7:35. Not too bad. The day started with a climb, like it seems to everyday, but I felt good and seemed to be going a bit quicker than normal. It was steep, I warmed up fast. There weren’t really any views. Just deep in the trees and greenery.

I climbed for what felt like a lifetime, then the trail meandered on top of the mountain for awhile. It started off nice, but then became a rocky jungle gym. Nothing like up in Maine, but more like Pennsylvania. Loose rocks all over the place. They weren’t hard to maneuver, they just hurt my feet and my ego. They slowed me down and I found it very irritating.

I started the downhill and parts were steep and slick, but overall just the same situation with making my feet ache with each step. I think it’s probably more the shoes and me hyper-focusing on them, but you try to tell yourself to quit thinking about something when all you’re doing is hiking through the woods and have no real distractions.. ha. It didn’t work very well.

I made my way down and ended up eating lunch on a small rock in the sunshine. I ate fast and was hardly sitting for 15 minutes all said and done. I started walking through a beautiful area near a rushing creek with gorgeous trees and tons of leaves covering the forest floor. It truly was lovely. As I walked along, I checked my app sometime around 1:30. I still had 11 miles to go.. that’s roughly 5.5 hours with my pace. So, I was looking at a 7pm arrival and that’s with no breaks or slowing down on the big climb still ahead of me.

I checked the next road crossing and made the decision to bail. I didn’t have service, so I messaged a hostel in town with my Garmin Inreach (man that thing is handy as hell). I told them where I was, that I didn’t have service, and that I wanted to be picked up, stay tonight and tomorrow night, and slackpack the 20 mile section from this point to Pearisburg. They said “hold tight, I’m on my way.” I was giddy!

I don’t know what came over me, but I just did not want to have to rush up that mountain and then trample over a rock studded mountain top to get to camp by dark, and more than likely be a bit late.. only to wake up and hike 8 miles to town anyway. Today was going to be 23.8 miles followed by 8.6 miles tomorrow. Now it’s 12.4 miles today, and 20 miles tomorrow (but without all my gear). TomAto-TomaTo.

Doc Peppa picked me up pretty quickly. I was expecting it to take over an hour and she had me picked up and checking into the hostel by 2:30.. mind you, the texting took about 25 minutes to go through on the Garmin.. so all in all, this was quick! I ended up picking a private room with a full sized cushy bed. The bunks looked nice, but I wasn’t risking those mattresses. If I’m paying money, I want comfort! I dropped my stuff, dug out my wallet, and then.. shockingly.. walked a quarter mile to a Mexican restaurant. And now we’ve determined the cause of my bail out today-apparently I wanted real food! Hahaha!

So, I got to La Barranca and promptly ordered cheese dip, a margarita, 2 enchiladas, rice and beans.. oh, and a water. I am here to tell you I devoured everything on that table. I think the waiter was either in shock or highly impressed. I scraped the plate clean, I used the very last chip in the bowl to get the last eensy weensy bit of cheese dip left (again, I considered licking the bowl, but stopped myself). It was so good.

A little stuffed and with a visible pooch belly, I waddled myself down the street to the food lion to get my resupply for the few days after Pearisburg, and for lunch and snacks for tomorrow’s slack pack. Once all loaded down with groceries, I made my way back to the hostel. I put away and organized my food, got my slack pack ready for tomorrow, and then went to shower.

The bathhouse is separate from the trailer my private room is in.. but man, it’s nice! That hot water is even more appreciated now that it’s chilly outside. I scrubbed up and stayed under the hot water until my fingertips turned pruny. Back at the room, I laid out in bed and began typing this up.. and I’ve caught up with friends and my mom some. I also made sure to message Soundscape earlier so he wouldn’t be worried when I didn’t appear at camp. He and Moose pushed on and made it to the shelter after the campsite, for a 25.2 mile day. I would probably still be hiking right now if I was trying to get there!

It looks like I’m going to have to get over my want for sleeping in and make myself get up earlier and get the day started sooner to make my mileage before night fall. It just is what it is, and as much as I hate it.. I’ll hate falling behind and being required to still be hiking this trail come December even more. I had hopes that this trek would turn me into a morning person. It hasn’t. I don’t think it ever will.. so, I’ll just have to force it for now to meet my goals. Which is ok. Hiking in the morning is usually the most enjoyable, once I actually get over the irritation of being awake.

I leave out of here tomorrow at 7, so it looks like it’s already my bedtime. I think I’ll be sleeping good tonight! Sweet dreams, y’all!

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!