The Unpolished Princess

Start: Rock Point (AT mi 848.7) Stop: The Priest Shelter (AT mi 829.7). Today’s miles: 19 miles. Total AT mileage: 1363.4 miles

Dear God-What. A. DAY. Whew.. now that thats out of the way-I’ll start from the beginning.
I got up sometime just after 7. I hate that I’m back in my “refuse to wake up” mode-I had mostly kicked that habit in Maine.. anyway, I sleepily got up and slowly got moving, and then was packed, breakfast eaten, and ready to go by 8am exactly. I headed off down trail, keeping my eyes peeled for the water source, since I only had a swallow left. I ended up coming across it less than 20 minutes later, but because it was such a slow trickle, it took me close to 30 minutes to filter a liter and a half of water. Ugh.

I put my pack back on, now heavier with the water, and within 10 minutes found another trickling “stream” but with a slightly better drop from the trickle, so I would have been able to fill up faster from this spot. I was seriously irked. It felt like the birds were laughing at me, with all their chitter chatter going on around me, and then the squirrels chimed in, too. I may or may not have held out loud conversations with them, I may or may not have used a bit of profanity when I told them where they could shove their squawky laughs. Don’t judge me.

Anyway, after that slight hiccup, my mood shifted upwards and I continued to have a pretty good, although grueling day. The trail was a downhill meandering deal for a good bit of the morning, before I entered the three ridges wilderness. Then, it was a climb up and over a mountain, I guess with three ridges, lol.. it was long and irritating-mostly because it was rocky and hot and had bees everywhere. I actually put my bug net on for bugs.. ha. Luckily I was smart enough to eat my lunch at the shelter right before that climb, and get more water, so at least I wasn’t hangry AND getting swarmed with bees and mosquitoes while I ate.

The “views” on three ridges were obscured by overgrown trees and bushes, so while I could see the mightiness of the mountains surrounding me, they didn’t show up in pictures. But they were gorgeous either way. I kept moving forward and started the descent that led to almost painful knees. There were a few steps that caused a twinge here and there, but overall it was just annoying with the rocks and not too bad.

I got to a shelter at the bottom and filled up both of my water bottles. I liked this area, but I hadn’t hit 15 miles yet, and that’s sort of my goal, to hit a 15 minimum unless it’s a “get to town” day. So, I pushed forward. There was a river with a suspension bridge at the bottom of the three ridges wilderness, with perfect campsites.. but it’s close to a road and there was a lady there laying out in the sun that clearly just walked over.. I get a little unsettled about camping close to roads when I’m alone. You never know if a crazy person might try to come see who’s camping there.

Not to mention, this was only at 14.2 miles for the day.. so I needed to get a bit farther. At 4pm, as I passed this bridge, I realized that the top of The Priest mountain is 5.1 miles away. I had thought it was only 4, but realized where my mistake was made when I was planning. I was rounding instead of actually calculating, so I was off. I decided that I was going to push myself and get to the top of that behemoth today. I knew I’d probably be setting up camp in the dark, but so be it. I didn’t want to do it tomorrow morning.
In that 5.1 miles, I had over 3 thousand feet of elevation gain. It was most definitely the most difficult part of the trail I’ve done since being up north.. but even still, it wasn’t “hard” per say, there was no obstacle courses or pulling my body with my 30 pound pack up and over a rock face.. it was just normal hiking-combined with sucking a whole lot of air.

It took me until 6:25 to reach the “top” and then it leveled out as it winded across the summit to the side with beautiful ledges, which I paused at to take pictures of the sun setting. I wished I had enough water to camp right there, it was so perfect. But, with all my wind sucking I also drank almost all of my 2 liters of water.. whoops. Plus, I was absolutely soaked with sweat and really needed to wash off in a stream, and the shelter ahead promised to have that available.

So, I kept going. I was 0.2 miles away from the shelter, hiking slightly downhill, when a bear darted across my path and continued down the trail in the direction I was going! OH MY GOD. NOOOOO. He was fast too! Like, it kind of scared me how fast he was. I started yelling out “hey bear!” And “I’m still coming this way bear!” And “go away bear!” I never saw it again, but I’d hear it thrashing about ahead of me, or off to the left ahead..

When I got to the side trail with the shelter, I saw that the AT went right, the side trail went left, and the camping area was straight ahead. I set up my tent still loudly yelling, I even threw in some “anybody else here!?” “People would be nice!” “Hello out there!” With my bear chants. I never heard anything or got a response. Since the sun was going down, I quickly unpacked and got my food, water bottles and filter, anything smelly, and clothes to change into-then hightailed it to the shelter-still yelling-so I could get water, wash off, change, eat dinner, and leave my food down there somewhere, in attempts to keep the bear far away from me.

When I got to the shelter, 2 hikers were there! They never saw the bear and never heard me yelling. That’s a little unsettling. I started knocking out my chores. I ate dinner while chatting with them, they’ve thru hiked the AT twice and are currently out on a section hike. They informed me that there was no bear box or pole, but did say I could just leave my food with them in the shelter.. they were keeping theirs with them. I ended up hanging mine in a tree nearby, and told them that way if the bear eats them during the night, they couldn’t blame my food for attracting it to them lol. They laughed.

I finally gathered the stuff to come back to the tent, my clothes and headlamp.. I also carried a good “hitting rock” with me too. They told me to have a rock to hit it with or throw at it to scare it away if I end up startling it on my way back to camp. They had several throwing rocks in the shelter with them by the time I headed out. I have 2 in my tent with me now, and, also at their recommendation, I have my bug spray next to me too, just in case something goes real bad, I can spray it’s eyes with it-haha, I don’t think it’ll help me at that point, but whatever, it’s close by anyway.

I can tell I’m slap worn out, because while the bear scares the shit out of me, I’m so tired that I really just want to go to sleep and I hope if it comes sniffing around it just leaves me be and doesn’t do anything loud enough to wake me up. I’ll definitely put my earplugs in tonight! I don’t want anything, mice or rabbits hopping around, to make me think that big ole booger is back to eat me. I even have my dirty socks propped up on top of my other gear-along with my shoes, hoping the stench deters any and everything roaming around out there.

Overall, I’m pretty damn proud of me today. I can’t believe I knocked out 19 miles, with the last 5 being going uphill to the top of The Priest. I was giving myself bailout points along the way, “well if you get to the river after 4:30, it’s ok to just camp there..” things like that. But I did what I originally set out to do. It’s a good feeling.

Anyway, I’m going to try to sleep.. and pray I don’t have anymore scary encounters tonight. I literally just heard an owl hoot over me, so maybe it’ll keep the other creatures away. It also just confirmed that I’m not getting back out of my tent until morning, unless absolutely necessary.

Sheesh. Goodnight y’all! Praying for sweet dreams for all of us!

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!

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

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!