The Unpolished Princess

Start: Middle Creek Campground (AT mi 758.5). Stop: Wilson Creek Shelter (AT mi 741.5) Today’s miles: 17 miles. Total AT mileage: 1451.6 miles

I got up around 645 and headed to the bath house.. the cabin didn’t have running water or anything. So, I headed there to handle my bathroom business, change clothes, brush my teeth. All the guys were already awake and mostly packed. One had already taken a shower!
I came back and was all packed by 7:15. I took my stuff over by the general store area to sit and hangout until they opened at 8 for breakfast. Butterfingers did the same. We had good service there, so I updated the blog and chatted.

Everyone else made their way over closer to 8.
8am on the nose we walked in and set to ordering our breakfasts. I got biscuits and gravy with 2 fried eggs. I feel like they should call it “biscuit” and gravy, because it was just one split in half. If I had known that, I would have gotten 2 orders, happily, because this meal didn’t fill me up like I had wanted it to. I won’t complain though, it tasted good.

We ate and promptly loaded into one of the worker’s trucks. She drove us back to the trailhead much sooner than we had expected, the way it was said yesterday. We were thrilled! We got started on the trail at 8:45, and it was already getting hot. The first 5 miles of the day would be a slow climb upwards, just not as continuously steep as The Priest was.

I was pouring sweat before 9am, literally just dripping! I was last in our group of 6 though, so I endured not one single spider web. I was ecstatic! I followed behind Blueberry and we talked about all kinds of things, life, running, family. It was such a welcomed distraction from the climb. It also had me thinking about Grant, an avid runner I met several years ago when I joined my dear friend Alice on my first ever relay race.

He told a story on social media recently about inadvertently encouraging a man to run his first ever marathon.. he didn’t even realize he had made an impact on this man while chatting with him during a volunteer project (they were both volunteering) last year. This year when volunteering again the men were all talking and it came out that this guy ran his first ever marathon because of Grant’s incredible accomplishments with ultra running. He originally didn’t even recognize one of the guys he was talking to WAS Grant himself!

It really resonated with me, because I relate so much.. I tend to downplay the things I’ve done, places I’ve seen, accomplishments I’ve made-and it’s a weird sense of not wanting to look like I’m bragging, or like I think I’m better than someone or a know it all on the subject.. I tend to shrink myself to not “take up too much space.” And this was exactly what Grant was saying to NOT do in his post, because you never know if the person listening is the one that needs to hear of those stories and accomplishments to get inspired to start creating their own.

All that to say, too, that I also hope by following this blog you get a sense of adventure and also see and feel the importance of finding and creating your own adventure or journey.. ya know? I pray I find the courage to be bold and proud of my accomplishments-and still not in a boastful bragging way, but in a “if I can have the courage to do and try and learn this-so can you.”

Anywho- back to the trail.. once we made it to the top of the mountain, I followed behind Blueberry a bit longer.. but once I didn’t want to keep his pace anymore, I gently asked to pass him and then put in my earbud. It was podcast time! I resumed where I left off on the podcast named “Serial.” It’s so dang good! Also, I’m all ears for other recommendations, too. (Side note: when I get done with this thing, I’m happy I have some new outlets to crochet to, audiobooks and podcasts.. haha).

The trail winded downhill for a bit, then it would hit the Blue Ridge Parkway, cross over and go up a little bit before coming down and doing the same thing all over again. It was easy, rolling hills all the way to the shelter. There were several of the road crossings.. at one, I ate my lunch, at the next one there were TONS of people parked along the lookout, looking for hawks! One lady gave me some water, which I was very grateful for because finding water today has been terrible. The streams are dry or very tiny trickles that take way too long to fill up at. I sat in the grass with Butterfingers, Soundscape, and BookWorm, soaking in the beauty of the day, the luck of the water.

The next road crossing only had a few people, one guy gave me a soda and I stood chatting a while with him. Then a girl drove up and offered us apples! Her name is Giggles and she was a NOBO hiker this year and summited the day after these guys did! So awesome! I didn’t take an apple though, I don’t like biting into hard things like apples with my four front teeth being crowns. Lol the last thing I need is to have a crown pop off while I’m hiking.

I carried on while some stayed and chatted. Butterfingers and TwoHats got to the shelter a while before I did. They already had their tents up when I got there around 4. I set mine up and then made the trek to get water. It took forever! I had to make a little leaf funnel to get the water to trickle into my bag.. my bag that still has holes in it so I have to do a liter at a time, filter it, then restart the process. Man it sucks. The Amazon app is still out of stock. Booooo.

By the time I got back, Soundscape and BookWorm appeared and started setting up their stuff. A couple thats on day one of their section hike is here, too. We all ended up sitting at the picnic table, eating dinner and swapping stories. Blueberry appeared around 6pm and got his hammock set up before trudging off to get water. I was hoping my leaf funnel stayed in place to make it a little easier for him.

A bit more talking and a small campfire built by the day one folks later, we all retired to our tents. It’s almost 830 now. Two dudes appeared a little bit ago and are setting their stuff up in the dark. I’m interested to know their story and to see if I know them, but I’m not interested enough to get up to find out.

Tomorrow will be 11 miles into Daleville. I already booked my hotel, and I know it’s ridiculous, but I’m happy about it! It’s supposed to rain Tuesday and Wednesday apparently, with Wednesday being worse.. so Butterfingers and I may see if we can arrange a slack pack on Tuesday and then zero on Wednesday.. I need that zero and I need it in a nice, clean hotel with a room all to myself. So, I think this will be the perfect time and place. Sadly, Tuesday would be when I’d do Tinker Cliff and McAffee Knob, 2 of the 3 triple crown hikes. Everyone talks about these places and the views from them-so if it’s raining I’m going to be annoyed, but also it would make sense, it does tend to rain on the perfect views for me.. minus Katahdin thank the Lord.
Anyway, we’ll make a definite plan tomorrow when we get to town, we booked the same hotel.

I’m excited about the idea of the BBQ and Mexican restaurants in town! More excited than I should be, I think.. since I haven’t really been eating much trail food this week anyway. Oh well.. you only live once, I might as well enjoy as much of it as I can! And with that, I’m off to sleep, to dream of chips and queso. Hmmmm.

Sweet dreams, y’all!

Start: Wilson Creek Shelter (AT mi 741.5). Stop: Daleville, Virginia (AT mi 730.3). Today’s miles: 11.2 miles. Total AT mileage: 1462.8 miles

I woke up hearing the others moving around and packing, but I succeeded in ignoring them until 6:30 ish. It had started to rain overnight off and on, little spritzes here and there.. then more steady as it came closer to morning. I realized my stuff was staying dry, even with one vestibule door on each side of my tent open, so I didn’t even get up to close the doors. I took my chances, figuring if worse came to worse, I’d be in a hotel tonight anyway and could dry out whatever I accidentally got wet. Luckily for me, only the outside of the tent was wet!

I changed my clothes and packed everything while still in my tent. Butterfingers had brought my food bag to me, so I even ate first before getting out into the rain. Once the majority was packed, I quickly brushed my teeth ein the rain-then took down the tent and packed it all in. I got on trail just after a few of the others, around 7:15 ish.

The trail was uphill for the first 6 miles, and while some of it definitely felt like a climb, the majority of it slowly sloped upwards. There were no views, there were no cool sightings. I did see a few deer dart off, but I didn’t get pictures. Honestly, for the majority of the morning I didn’t really take many pictures at all.

Around 11 the rain slowed to more of an off and on misting. Nothing too heavy. Plus, the trail started to go into some pastures and fields. They were a beautiful welcome, simply to see something other than wet trees. At some point the trail went by the sign telling me I’m 2/3 to Springer Mountain in Georgia! Only A THIRD to go! Man oh man, I was delighted to see that!

Before I knew it, I was walking out to the main highway and turning left to see the big sign for the Super 8 motel! As I was walking towards it, I passed a gas station and then heard men yelling at me.. I thought it was the dudes in the beat up truck at first, so I kept my focus forward and ignored them. Then, I see one guy dart out towards me.. it was TwoHats! I didn’t recognize him without his pack! Haha

I walked over to them and chatted. TwoHats, Soundscape, and BookWorm were just resting and eating before heading on to do more miles. They planned to hike out, camp tonight, hike farther tomorrow, and then get picked up and brought back to this motel tomorrow to zero on Wednesday. Wednesday looks like the worst weather day, so everyone is making plans to avoid it somehow. Butterfingers and I were going to call a guy to shuttle us south in the morning and then we’ll hike northbound back to Daleville.

We both checked into our rooms, happy as a clam that our rooms were even ready at 12:30! I was only asking for her to say, “nope not ready..” and for me to follow up with the, “can you hold my bag while I go run errands?” I got into my room and scoped it out. It’s most definitely the nicest Super 8 motel I’ve ever seen. I was suddenly so very grateful for TieDye for texting me and telling me about it. I put everything down, grabbed my wallet, mask, and the socks I was planning to return, and headed downstairs. A minute or two later, Butterfingers appeared and we walked across the street to a Mexican restaurant: Panchos.

Y’all. It was so delicious. I’m not exaggerating. Or maybe I am, I don’t know anymore. The chips were toasted to perfection, the margarita was on point, the fajitas burrito was glorious, the queso was incredible.. a complete masterpiece of a lunch, if I do say so myself. We ate like someone was going to snatch it from us at any given second, and we talked. We covered all topics: life, work before the trail, covid-all of it. It was nice to share a meal in town with someone else at a restaurant. I haven’t had that in awhile. It makes me miss my friends and my family.

After we ate, he headed back to his motel room, I started the mile plus walk to the post office. When I finally made it there, I picked up the package mom sent me. She tapes things like she wants no one to ever get into them-including me. I stabbed at it awhile with a pen before I finally got it open. She sent me a sweet note, plus the things I asked for: a specific pair of shorts, birth control, a towel, a new pair of socks and the papers to return my damaged darn tough socks.

The Darn Tough Socks brand are known for their lifetime warranty. One of my 2 pair got holes on the bottoms of them, where the ball of my foot and the arch meet. How? I have no clue, but it’s on the same spot in both socks. I filled out the envelope and put the old socks (washed of course) and the papers she sent me inside, sealed it and sent it off. Then I started my walk back.

Half way to the motel, I detoured to the Kroger-mainly to use their bathroom (gotta love drinking a margarita AND water and not using the bathroom before setting off on an excursion). But, since I was there, I went ahead and got my resupply done, as much as I could guess for now anyway. When I left, I walked to an outfitter in the same parking lot.. I ended up buying a liter water bag to use for the time being since my cnoc bag is coming closer and closer to its deathbed. I also ended up getting a 3oz tiny day bag that’s also waterproof. To test it out, I put everything in it (groceries and box of goodies from the post office and my phone and wallet), and then headed back to the motel.

It works phenomenally, by the way.. and I’m definitely using it tomorrow when I slack pack with Butterfingers. He text me to let me know he arranged our ride for tomorrow, the guy, Homer will pick us up at 7am from the motel. Then it can take each of us however long we want to hike back to the motel, since it’s practically right on trail. Awesome. I like when someone else makes the decisions and all I have to do is show up! Lol

I showered once I got back and then relaxed on the cushy bed watching the rest of a Netflix show I started awhile ago. It was so refreshing to just do nothing. Close to 6pm I ordered pizza delivery, mainly so I’d have something easy to pack out tomorrow for lunch on my slack pack. I ate, scrolled through social media, watched tv. Eventually I decided I had better sleep since my 7am departure time would show up sooner than I wanted it to.

And here we are. Laying in bed trying to get sleepy. Hopefully it’ll come soon, because I’m technically still wide eyed even in the complete dark. I hope you get some good sleep, too. Goodnight y’all.

Start: VA Route 311 (AT mi 710.5). Stop: Daleville, Virginia (AT mi 730.3). Today’s miles: 19.8 miles. Total AT mileage: 1482.6 miles

I got up at 6:15 and quickly got ready. I bought frozen egg and cheese burritos from Kroger yesterday, so I ate one of those before heading downstairs. It was 10 minutes to 7, so I ran over to the gas station to grab new water bottles. I forgot to mention the disaster the other day when we stayed at the campground.. when we were filling up our water bottles from the hose out front, the lady came out to say THATS the hose people put in their RVs poop tank to clean it out.. barf.

She had let me come in to the kitchen and scrub the hell out of my water bottles, but because they didn’t sell liter bottles, I had to make due. When I got to Daleville, I promptly trashed them! So.. I needed new ones. Sadly, this gas station didn’t sell liters either, but I knew the one across the street did. I just got 2 small ones for today and made a mental note to go to the other one before Thursday.

When I walked back to the motel, Homer, our shuttle driver had just pulled in. Butterfingers and I hopped in the car and we were off at 7am exactly. Talk about promptness. It’s something I really appreciate these days. He dropped us off at a trailhead on VA 311. It was damp and misty. Our awesome views would most definitely be hidden today. Such is life.

I started out before Butterfingers, but he quickly caught me and passed me by. This is his first slack pack, other than Mount Katahdin, and because of it-he practically flew down the trail. I never saw him again until later that evening when I was walking to dinner.. haha

The trail was wet and muddy but still enjoyable. There were climbs up to McAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs.. but they weren’t very difficult at all. The trail really does feel like a trick sometimes, because you see the elevation profile, you know you’re supposed to be climbing, but it doesn’t feel like the hard heart pumping climbing you’ve learned to expect.. I’ve literally stopped mid trail to pull up the map to make sure I didn’t accidentally get turned in the opposite direction because of a climb feeling too easy.

McAfee Knob is an incredible, iconic spot on the AT. From the perfect position, it looks like you’re out on a steep, sharp ledge, standing with Mufasa as he shows Simba all of their kingdom. It’s STUNNING. If you don’t want to simply google pictures from strangers, look at FarOut and Sauce’s blog, wanderinggs.Wordpress.com and see their epic photo without filters. It’s awe-inspiring in every way.

Naturally, for my sweet, sweet luck, this gorgeous view was socked in with clouds and I couldn’t see a damn thing. I expected as much, looking at the weather, but it was still disheartening at first. I made the best of it, up there alone on a cliff side. I propped my phone up against my day pack and pushed the record button.. then walked around to the ledge and took my goofy time making different poses. I came back to the phone and snapped screen shots of the video for the pictures I liked. So, while maybe not epic or iconic, it was still a fun morning in the rain and part of my journey. I laughed and giggled by myself while making the video, so those memories will outshine the disappointment of lacking incredible views.

I put my day pack back on, thrilled at its waterproof-ness.. and kept walking. I passed a few people I didn’t recognize, and I also passed the group of SOBO hikers I met briefly while they slack packed the other day. No one was really chatty, because as each hour ticked by, the rain picked up. At some point, I pulled out my umbrella because I was sick of wiping my face. My mood never shifted negative though. I really think knowing the hotel was waiting on me had a big part in that. There would be no setting up a tent in the rain, or waiting out the downpours from inside the tent.. I was going to shower and do laundry and everything I own will be clean, and I’ll sleep in that comfy bed.

Tinker Cliffs would have probably been just as stunning as McAfee Knob, but I didn’t see anything other than the white clouds all around. I didn’t stay and play like before, I just kept trucking along. Because of the rain, I didn’t stop to eat lunch and get off my feet, although I did pass a ton of shelters, so I could have. I would just put my day pack on backwards, open it up under the umbrella, and slide out a slice of pizza and eat while walking. I brought 4 slices and ended up eating them all throughout the day. This tells you many things, but the most important one is this: the trail was easily walkable enough that I could maneuver my gear and eat food and drink my drinks while holding an umbrella in the rain. Hahaha. Where even am I?

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t like it was all smooth walking paths, there were some rocky spots that caused me to take some caution with my steps. But I never fell. Not once. I’m still in shock over that, actually. I made it to the highway by 3:40pm. I walked into the other gas station and got my bigger water bottles, then headed straight to the Super 8 to shower.

The hot water felt amazing. I stood under the shower head long enough for the water to slowly start to lose its heat. Then I finished up, dried off, got dressed, and headed to do laundry. As I was sitting there with the washer going, Jerzy appeared! He had his clothes (along with Blueberry, Soundscape, TwoHats and Bookworm’s clothes, too) in the dryer! We caught up over the last couple days and then planned to meet for dinner at 6 with the other guys.

I got my clothes in the dryer, and decided to stay in the room, working on the blog, so I wouldn’t forget about the clothes when I went to dinner. It was already close to 5:30 at this point. Sitting there, typing away, the door opens. I look up and it’s Cactus! OMG! I knew she was close by, since other hikers had mentioned hiking or camping with her, but I was thrilled to see her! Not only is she just a cool person in general, she’s also the reason I got to hike that 10 miles to the Birches the day before we all summited Mount Katahdin. Her kindness literally made for my most exciting 24 hours. I’m forever grateful to her.

We hugged and caught up on life since Katahdin. It seems everyone has the same feelings of loneliness during that first week or two going south. We went from it being rare to not camp with a ton of people, and them being mostly people you already knew, to literally not even seeing other hikers all day or night. It looks like now we’re starting to catch others (or more accurately, they’re catching me lol) and the groups of thru hikers are finally coming together.

I invited Cactus to dinner, and minutes after she left to to shower, I took my dry clothes to my room and walked across the street to Panchos. It’s dangerous having such good food so close! TwoHats and Soundscape were already there with Josh Sutton, the dad of LittleMan, the 5 year old that completed the AT this year-the youngest thru hiker! Shortly after my arrival, Jerzy appeared, and then BookWorm appeared with two of his friends (former thru hikers themselves). All of us chatted, shared our Katahdin stories and other hiking moments-like my getting turned away at the Madison Hut in the White Mountains.

Not long after we ordered, Cactus showed up! She got a chair and joined in on the fun. Blueberry and Josh’s friend (he’s filming footage for a documentary about the Sutton family and their tramily while on the AT, Blueberry is part of their tramily..) appeared too! We had quite the group of folks! And it was so nice to laugh and chat and just enjoy the people around me. It’s pretty incredible that the trail manages to bring all of these people together.

After dinner, I headed back and got in bed. I hung out and watched tv until now.. writing this up and trying to keep my eyes open! It’s hard to believe I used to work night shift, since I struggle to stay up after 10pm now. Haha. I plan to zero tomorrow.. and the fact that it’s still pouring down rain as I write this confirms my and everyone else’s) decision. I’m very thrilled about it! It’s my first zero since the rainy zero day in Harper’s Ferry.. that’s 20 days of straight hiking!

Here’s to sleeping in! Goodnight y’all!