Start: Punch Bowl Overlook (AT mi 798.2). Stop: Glasgow, Virginia (AT mi 787.2). Today’s miles: 11 miles Total AT mileage: 1405.9 miles
It took forever for me to fall asleep. When I finally did, sometime close to midnight, I slept like the dead. I’m guessing the Benadryl I took for my itchy legs had something to do with that. I didn’t get up until 8:45 this morning but I got ready fast. I was all packed and at Leonard’s van by 9:15. I asked him if he’d take me through the Hardee’s drive through on our way to the trialhead.. he obliged and I bought his breakfast for him.
I ate my two egg and cheese biscuits on our 30 minute drive back to Punch Bowl Overlook. Leonard was chatty the whole way. Maybe one day I’ll be a better morning person but at this point I highly doubt it. He dropped me off by 10:25, I sat on the sidewalk and got my shoes on. Then it was an immediate uphill climb to the top of Bluff Mountain.
It was tough and the spider webs were on another level. My God it was frustrating. However, I knew I only had 11 miles to knock out before getting to Glasgow and another shower. I listened to my audiobook (The House on the Cerulean Sea-highly recommend, but then again I tend to highly recommend all books-go figure), and poured sweat, and lived in my bug net. Even annoyed as I was, I stayed in a good mood.
I had service at the top of Bluff, I sat on a rock and uploaded one of the many posts I was behind on. I took my time, not worried about the potential for losing any. I wasn’t hungry for lunch, so when I finally got a post uploaded, I put my pack on and kept walking. The trail meandered downhill the rest of the way. I saw no one! It was hot and buggy, but being so close to town meant nothing was bothering me.
I got to the James River Bridge parking lot at 3pm and realized I didn’t have service. I turned on my Garmin Inreach and sent a message to my mom, she graciously called the hostel and asked them to come get me. They appeared within 45 minutes of sitting there on the parking lot ground eating my lunch of left over pizza from last night. It was perfect! About the time I finished was the time LongWalker appeared in the parking lot to get me!
I hopped in the SUV and was driven to the hostel. I promptly showered and unpacked my stuff. I was going to do laundry but realized they had the same brand of detergent that the cabin had-so I got a ride to Dollar General to resupply AND buy some Gain to wash my clothes. We came back and I washed my clothes, then ordered dinner. LongWalker went to pick it up for me. I had a great cheesesteak sub. Plus, I got a sandwich for tomorrow.
I packed up then hung out in the living room, watching Netflix. Then, Charlie, the man of the house appeared. We chatted a bit and then he baked me some brownies! It was so good! I ate and watched tv.. enjoying the company. I was the only hiker here! It was just me, Charlie, and LongWalker. They said this was the first time all season they’ve only had one person stay!
Eventually, I ended up heading to bed. The mattress is less than desirable, but whatever. Beggars can’t be choosers. I’m planning to slack pack tomorrow, so, we’ll see how that goes! I’m told it should be a good, quick 15 miles. Now, time for some sleep before that 6:30 alarm goes off! Sweet dreams!
Start: Hog Camp Gap (AT mi 815.4). Stop: Punch Bowl Overlook (AT mi 798.2). Today’s miles: 17.2 miles. Total AT mileage: 1394.9 miles
Sunrise from my tent
Not long after I wrote out yesterday’s post, I made dinner. Then a lady and her dog showed up to camp in the same meadow I was in. I eventually went over to say hi, since her doggo was a beautiful big pup that I had to pet. We became best friends, and his mom was out for her first overnight camping experience on her “own” to try out her gear. We talked awhile, sharing experiences and, well, her letting me love on her dog. I finally went back to my side of the huge field around 7:45.
I didn’t sleep well, but not because of my location. It was perfect. My tent was on soft grass, the night was cool and breezy, there were no bears.. but my legs itched so bad and no amount of scratching helped ease my discomfort. I scratched like a complete lunatic all night. When I’d fall asleep, I’d wake up after I rolled over and start the itching all over again. I have a mix of heat rash bumps and what I assume are mosquito bites, although I’m thinking they’re more along the lines of killer mosquitos. You could play connect the dots on my legs and draw out all the constellations in the galaxy. I’m doing great.
So, I finally got up at 7:15, irritable and cranky. Of course I slept good after 5. Uuuugh. I packed and chatted briefly with the lady across the way. She was up and had her coffee and built a fire. There are morning people, and then there is me. I’m not talkative when I first wake up, and especially not when I slept like crap and my legs are on fire.
I started hiking by 8:10am and my bad attitude continued. I started up a climb first thing. The views should have changed my ‘tude.. the trail was gentle and there was a previous controlled burn in this area, but it was awhile ago because fresh bright green ferns and other small plants were covering the ground over the majority of the black burned parts. It had it own magical look, the new growth popping through the damaged parts.
Then the trail went up to a grassy bald mountain top, Cole Mountain, gorgeous 365 degree views of other mountains and valleys and the sun shining over all of them.. this perked my mood up. The descent was kind, too, before going back up the next mountain, Knob Bald. It was steep and I sucked wind the whole way up. With my huffing and puffing, the humidity also showed up, along with all of the bugs in Virginia. I was back in my bug net, frustrated, and sweating profusely-setting all of my bumps on fire. And then there was the spider webs.
The absolute second my phone showed 1 bar of any type of service, I called the motel in town. To my delight, the guy running the place answered. He said he could get me from either spot, I picked the farther one so I’d get my mileage in for the day. He said to call back when I was 30 minutes away, and he’d be there. Again, my mood was lifted, considerably.
I decided to turn on an audiobook, and luckily it helped keeping my mood from sinking again. So, I was listening and hiking and swatting at bugs and pulling off webs continuously. The trail went downhill pretty steeply, and then continued on beside a creek for several miles. It was beautiful, but so covered in mosquitos that I literally almost screamed out in frustration when I tried to eat my lunch. I managed to get my peanut butter tortilla down, but it was scarfed down so quick I barely tasted it.
The book distracted me well enough to enjoy the rest of the day. I think it was because I knew a shower, motel room, and better food was coming. I called Leonard, the motel manager, around 4pm. I was already close to the parking lot at PunchBowl Overlook, but it was the first spot I got enough service to call. It took him until 4:45 to get there. He runs everything at the motel on his own, so he had to check in a couple before he could close up the front office to come get me. He even brought me a Mountain Dew! My savior!
My motel room in Buena Vista is one that, well, I’m glad I didn’t decide to zero at.. it could pass as what some might call “seedy.” Lauren and I have stayed in two motels worse than this one, but not by far! Ha! It doesn’t come with shampoo or conditioner, just a bar of soap. So, I showered with just the bar.. it is what it is. The sheets are clean, so that’s a plus. And the AC works, as does the TV with my SVU marathon on. All in all, I’m happy.
After my shower I ordered some pizza and then attempted to upload pictures to the blog.. to no avail. I don’t have enough service, and the WiFi won’t upload them either. It looks like I’ll have to wait another day! It’s almost 9pm and I already feel better. I do wonder if I’ll need to take a zero soon though. I think I might need a reset, to keep my attitude in check. But, it won’t be tomorrow.
Tomorrow I’ll have Leonard drop me off and I’ll hike 10 ish miles to Glasgow and stay at the hostel there, and do my laundry and resupply there. I also think I’ll see about slack packing the following day, but we’ll see what that hostel looks like before I decide.
For now, all I’m deciding to do is go to sleep! Sweet dreams!
Start: The Priest Shelter (AT mi 829.7). Stop: Hog Camp Gap (AT mi 815.4). Today’s miles: 14.3 miles Total AT mileage: 1377.7 miles
Well, all my hoopla about nothing less than 15 miles didn’t withstand today.. although 14.3 is pretty dang close! The bugs and mugginess just did me in today. It’s technically only 5pm as I’m writing this out, but I don’t care.. I’m not going up and over nothing else today. Period.
I got up at 7. I slept pretty well considering going to bed thinking I’d be scaring away bears all night. That never happened.. although even between owl hoots and hollers, I did get out of my tent to pee-twice. I was kicking myself for chugging so much water at dinner, but it was RIGHT THERE and so easy to grab, that I couldn’t help myself.
I left my pack at the sign pointing to the shelter and then headed down the side trail to get my food bag and eat breakfast. The two guys from last night were just about to start hiking themselves! They said their night went smoothly, too. I had joked with them last night that if I got too spooked I was going to grab my sleeping bag and pad and walk down there to sleep in between them.. they retorted that I better make sure to announce myself so they didn’t throw rocks at me.. haha.. so this morning we were all laughs about how well we all slept even though we were all slightly on edge.
They left as I got my food down. I went ahead and filtered another bottle of water, to start off with 2 liters. Every comment in the app I use mentioned how everything is either dry or a slow trickle, so I didn’t want to get myself into a pickle. Then I ate my Poptart and headed back up the hill to my pack. I got my food bag in and was on the trail by 8:05. Not too shabby.
The trail was basically multiple ups and downs through very thick woods that would occasionally lighten up and give a view before going back into the darkness of the tree cover. There were quite a bit of gravel like rocks, almost like the trail maintenance people poured out bags of pea gravel and let everyone kick it around. So while it’s not “difficult” to walk on, it is annoying as hell.. especially when you step center foot on a rough edged one. Ouch.
Today felt more like the Rollercoaster than the actual Rollercoaster did. Maybe it was because my body is sore from so many big days in a row, and with yesterday being so tough at the end, I didn’t expect much out of today. I’m not sure, but I know I went down up and over 7 blips on the elevation map today, and I flat out refused to go over the last 2 to get me to where I had originally planned to camp. These ups weren’t hard. The downs weren’t either. But it was muggy and hot and the bugs were making me a lunatic.
I practically lived in the bug net, and when my head is sweaty and the air already feels thick, the bug net sets off my mild claustrophobia. It felt like I was suffocating at times. I’d pull it off in a huff and wipe my face with my too damp bandana, and immediately be swarmed with gnats, mosquitos, flies, or bees. Highly frustrating. Even sitting here now, they are absolutely everywhere, making me consider getting into my tent before dinner..
Anyway, enough complaining! I passed my shelter guys some time around 9-9:30. They seem Uber impressed with my speed, which I find amusing since all of my friends are faster than me, but I appreciated the compliment regardless. Shortly before 11, I passed two other men hiking northbound. They told me water was coming up on the trail and I should fill up there, because the water after that one was far off trail. I thanked them and then did exactly that.
While my water was filtering, I sat on a rock and tried to eat a probar for a snack. It was too early for lunch but I was hungry already. I got half of it down before I started gagging like I did the last time I tried to eat one back in Maine. I guess probars are out the window now. I just can’t stomach them anymore. This one was Blueberry Muffin, too-my favorite. Because of the bar I was nauseous for a couple hours afterwards. I tried a piece of airhead candy every now and then to see if it was better, but I just felt cruddy.
At the top of one of the many lumps I covered today, I did sit and eat my lunch-on another rock. It was about 12:30, and while I still had an uneasy stomach, I handled the peanut butter tortilla just fine. And then, I had another one-just to be sure. I stayed there for thirty minutes or so, before deciding to carry on. At this point, I was still planning to get to my original destination.
Then, sometime after 2, I looked on my app and saw a motel that would pick up from the area I was aiming towards.. it was just slightly farther than my original destination. Maybe a motel bed, air conditioning, and something better than trail food would make me feel better and perk up my mood. I checked the time and figured I’d have enough time to get to the parking lot by 6 or 6:30 at the latest. I decided that if I called and he had a room available AND would come get me-it was a sign I should go.
No one answered the phone. For some reason, this just depleted my soul. I was so sad! When I got to the top of the blip I was going up, I looked at my maps again and decided then that I wasn’t going over the next 2 if the field at the bottom of this current one had water at its stream. And then, I flung my pack off and laid in the grass under a tree. For almost an hour. It was the best part of my whole day! And I had a gorgeous view, too.
As I was laying around, still swatting at bugs every 3-5 seconds of course, I realized that I drank most of my water, banking on this stream having some. But if it didn’t, I’d have 2 gulps-hardly-to get me over those last 2 blips and several miles downhill to the next water source. Welp. That gave me some energy! Time to get a move on.
I popped up and hiked down the less than a mile to the field at the bottom of the current little mountain. It’s a beautiful meadow with apple trees and many others all around. I found where I wanted to camp, sat my pack down, and took my water bottles, water bag, and filter the 0.3 miles to the stream. Thank the sweet Lord there was water there!
I filtered my 2 bottles and then filled up the bag again. It has holes that I’m still “patching” albeit poorly.. so it leaks everywhere. I brought it all back up the hill to my camp and then set to work using the bag and filter as a mini shower to wash my legs off. Between the bugs, heat rash bumps, and spider webs, I may come close to losing my mind out here. When I get some decent service I need to google the temperature required for none of those things to be out and about.
While my legs dried off, I set up my tent and threw my bear line. Then changed my clothes and unpacked everything. It’s breezy here, so hopefully my clothes dry out some. I can only pray. I walked around the area, checking it all out.. I ate a couple bites of one of the apples, I don’t think they’re quite ripe yet. And now I’m just waiting for it to be a bit later so I can make dinner and then head to bed.
Because I stopped short, I won’t be getting into Glasgow tomorrow evening.. it’ll be the following day and that day will be a short day, which I’m happy about. The same guy that runs the last hostel I stayed at also owns one in Glasgow, too.. so I plan to stay there and maybe slackpack the next day. I’ll have to see what they offer and how it’ll work out.
Either way, I’m looking forward to town food. I think I’m getting sick of everything I eat out here.. but I’m too nervous to try new things in case they make me sick, and these things are light as can be.. so, it’s just what I have to deal with. There’s also a couple places to get picked up tomorrow, so if I get too miserable, I may do that. But I’ll try to be good and consider saving some money by getting to the hostel the following day instead of a motel tomorrow. Motels at best are $60-75 a night, the hostel is $30. Eh, I guess we’ll all see which will win, frugality or comfort. At this point it could go either way!
