The Unpolished Princess

Start: US 52, Bland, VA (AT mi 591.8). Stop: VA 606 (AT mi 610.2). Today’s miles: 18.4 miles. Total AT mileage: 1592.3 miles.

Same thing, next day. I got up at 6:20 and was ready to go by 7, this time with my day pack and my full pack. I didn’t put my shoes on, just my crocks, since I was going to get my new shoes later this morning. Groovin took me and Butterfingers on our way right on time.. and stopped at Hardee’s for me, the 3rd day in a row! I got the 4 biscuits again, since they were so easy to eat and so filling yesterday.

Butterfingers got dropped off first and had a look of determination on his face-he was ready to crush my 9:50 time, and I was ready to see him do it. Groovin then drove me over to Weary Feet Hostel. I thanked him immensely for his kindness over the last few days and then walked to the patio area. This hostel is an older house on a gorgeous farm.. just lovely really. A man came out to talk with me, and as we were discussing the plan to take me to the post office after dropping Lizard and Finch off (so I could ride with), Lizard came out!

Y’all. It felt like seeing a childhood friend after years of being apart. I know that’s dramatic, but my God I had missed her SO MUCH! Just being able to see her and give her a hug and catch up made my whole heart happy! And to make it better, Finch came out the door too! And it happened all over again. I’ve really missed my people. Robert, the hostel guy finally calmed us down and got us to get a move on for the morning.. they went to finish breakfast and packing, I took my pack inside, and then Soundscape appeared, too! He was going to do the same slack as me! Heck yes! Today really is just perfection!

We all load into the truck and we talk the whole way to the trailhead. Lizard and I make plans to be in the same town on Saturday, so we can live stream Lizard’s girlfriend, Hannah, and her band playing a show! (Hopefully that’s not supposed to be a secret, I don’t think it is-but also, how badass is that?! Hannah is in a band! I’m excited to see her perform!). If I’m still a day behind Lizard, there’s multiple roads going into the same town, so I’ll still be able to get there.. if anything it’s more motivation for me to get to the same road crossing-so the next day we can hike out together! Here’s to praying that happens!

Anyway-we said our goodbyes for now and then Robert and I headed to the post office. I got my new shoes mom sent along with my favorite hiking pants. The shoes felt funny at first and I knew they’d require some breaking in, so once I was dropped off at the trailhead I gave myself some grace and took it slow for the first few miles. I had to stop and fix the laces, then retie them, then loosen them. Every 10-15 minutes I was messing with my feet.

The trail started off by a highway, but there were some gorgeous views out over mountains and down into the valleys with their cities below. But once the trail turned into the woods, it was the same old woods I’ve seen for days and days. Please don’t take that as a complaint, because I enjoyed them very much. I love the trail being an actual trail and not the obstacle courses of the north. It’s just sometimes it feels monotonous and gets more difficult to describe.

I was moving right along without a care in the world for most of the morning. A little after noon, I passed Soundscape and Moose sitting down eating lunch. Moose was hiking southbound and we were hiking northbound-and Soundscape and I were already half way at this point. I stopped to talk a minute before carrying on. I ate my biscuit while walking about 30 minutes before this.

I checked my phone not long after that encounter and discovered my phone battery was only at 26%!! I must not have fully charged my phone last night, if barely at all. I remembered disconnecting it from the charger this morning, but it obviously wasn’t all the way connected or something. Since I still had 9 miles to go I put my phone in airplane mode to try to save the battery I had left. Which also means I had no podcasts or music to listen to. It was fine though, I was decorating and designing my dream bedroom, bathroom, and closet. Ha-I’m sure that scares the crap out of my Uncle Keith..

At a road crossing, I ran into LongShot. He was headed to the shelter I had just passed. He told me he took a road walk around this last 5 miles, which was almost the same mileage, but the road walk went by farmhouses, fields, pastures with cows.. basically it was more enjoyable to him because of the change in scenery. I decided to take the road walk instead of the trail. I saw the pastures on the way here in the car 2 days in a row now, and I just wanted to see some pretty Virginia country. Was it technically the AT? Nope. Do I regret hiking around it? Nope.

The road walk was beautiful! There was a pond, so many cows, some goats, a gaggle of turkeys, and even a beagle that wanted to snip at my heels a bit before being called away from me. There were farmhouses and barns, and stunning mountain views the whole way. I loved it! Seeing these older homes and country life made me envious of these people and their rocking chair front porches with their cows mooing just over the little fence.

At 3pm I got to Trent’s Grocery, a little convenient store that cooked hot food and sold everything a hiker could want, including fuel. Zebra, Smash, and Sunshine were there! I ate 2 corn dogs and some potato wedges while talking with them and some of the locals. The three of them headed out as Cactus and Bones came in. We chatted, and then Robert appeared. He offered to drive me back to the hostel in his tractor that he was there filling with gas! As Cactus always says, “If not now, then when?” Ok!

He climbed up in the tractor and pulled down the buddy seat for me. That thing was the most fun riding in! It was only just over a mile to the hostel, but it was so much better doing that mile in the tractor than walking! I got all checked in at the hostel, showered, washed clothes, and sat out on the porch awhile. I don’t have service here, so I couldn’t upload the blog posts.. so I just enjoyed the company I was with. Mrs. Julie, Robert, and a section hiker named, HikerPole.

A bit later, Robert went to get Soundscape from the road crossing and returned with him, Cactus, and Bones. They all settled in. We talked on the porch and then had dinner together. Julie made BBQ chicken, macaroni salad, butternut squash, baked beans, and a roll. She topped it off with red velvet cake. I need you to know I am suffering while I lay in this bed typing this out. I ate absolutely too much food and can barely breathe! Tomorrow is going to be a tough one with a full pack. I’m already dreading it.

Knowing that hiking out tomorrow will get me closer to catching Lizard and Finch, and hopefully Sauce and FarOut, too, is really my only motivation. It’s easier to say that while lying in bed, so we’ll see how tomorrow pans out! Haha I have a feeling when I wake up in this bed in the morning I’ll be fantasizing about taking a zero here and having another home cooked dinner..

Sweet dreams y’all. It’s time to drift off into my food coma!

Start: US 52, Bland, VA (AT mi 591.8). Stop: Stealth Site (AT mi 574.6 miles). Today’s miles: 17.2 miles. Total AT mileage: 1618.5 miles

I’m not sure if you get updated when I edit a previously posted entry.. but if so, I’m sorry for the recent bombardment.. I’ve realized I’ve been tired and rushing these posts- I made one mileage mistake and it therefore crossed over to several days. I’ve officially fixed it all, I think anyway.. and I’ll be better at paying attention to the details before posting!

I slept in until 7am-and it was everything I had imagined it would be! I slept so good in that bed, in a bunk room alone. I had the ceiling fan on and I even turned on the window AC unit for some extra noise-just on the fan setting though.

I got ready and headed downstairs to breakfast. Mrs. Julie made us pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage.. patties not links and I am SO happy about that! Those sausage links are gross, in my ever so humble opinion. I also had coffee.. I was enjoying it so much I was already thinking about tomorrow morning and my plan to adopt Cactus’ morning routine-get up and get my food bag first (I’m assuming after a quick pee) and then eat breakfast and have coffee in the tent still huddled with my quilt.. THEN packing up.

Robert drove HikingPole, Soundscape, and me to the US 52 road crossing. HikingPole went north, we headed south. With full packs. Man oh man, I still get shocked every time I lift that thing when it’s full of food and water. Whew, when does it get easy? Haha! I had 2 liters of water plus a Gatorade because the water options are limited. Many, if not most, of the water crossings are dry right now. So, sadly we have to tote more.

The trail immediately went into a climb.. luckily I got a view pretty quick! But then it was back into the deep woods and my views consisted of pretty pine straw and fallen leaves on the trail, surrounded by huge trees. There seemed to be several blow downs too. That was sometimes complicated to get over or around, but it did make it interesting.

Reggae passed me at some point-I cannot for the life of me remember when I met him.. but I know I did.. lol. He can’t remember either, but he knew my name. Shortly after he and his friend passed, Soundscape got to the road crossing he was getting off at. His daughter was coming to pick him up for a few days off trail in Nashville, to celebrate her birthday I believe! How fun!

I went down a steep descent and then had to refill and tote more water to get to my destination. The creek I was at was only 12 miles into the day, I was originally hoping for a 20 mile day, but Finch text me and told me about a stealth site at 17 ish for the day. I had to carry water for all of it, so I called it at 5pm at the stealth site. That uphill climb after the creek really kicked my butt.

While I’m sure it was because of the full pack, the extra water, the random new heat and return of the gnats.. I was exhausted. I felt more tired after this 17 mile day than I did after the almost 27 mile day.. conditions truly make all the difference! I got my tent set up, bear line thrown, and stuff unpacked pretty quickly. Once I realized I had service, I set to work uploading yesterday’s pictures and blog post while I cooked and ate dinner. I would say I’d go ahead and upload today’s pictures, but it’s almost 8:30 and I think I’d just rather go to bed instead! Haha
Goodnight!

Start: Stealth Site (AT mi 574.6 miles). Stop: Bear Garden Hostel (AT mi 558.5). Today’s miles: 16.1 miles. Total AT mileage: 1634.6 miles

I slept great, once I fell asleep.. it took some rolling around to get comfortable. Then I slept so well, I pushed snooze until 7. Dammit. I was supposed to get up early and knock out a lot of miles. Strike one.

I did, however, try out Cactus’ routine and get my food bag first-and eat breakfast and have coffee in my tent before packing up, aka: snuggled back in my quilt. It really is all it’s cracked up to be. I’ve always had this mentality of packing quickly and eating afterwards, but with these cold mornings, it makes breakfast miserable. As much as I care about getting to Georgia and finishing this thing, I’m not in favor of suffering for no reason. So, my mornings will probably take a little longer, but it’ll give me a better start to the day. Like it did today..

I got on trail right before 8am and less than 5 minutes later, Smash came rolling by! He and his tramily camped 2 miles back.. and he mentioned they were all headed to Bear Garden Hiker Hostel and had a cabin rented.. it sleeps 6 and they only had 5. He invited me to be their number 6. I told him I’d think on it for a little while and let them know, since I was supposed to be hiking more than 16 miles today to stay on schedule to meet up with Lizard. He laughed and agreed, but then said if the others catch up to me they’ll probably all invite me, too.

As I hiked I played with numbers and mileage.. all of the what if’s for stopping early today. By the time LongShot came up on me, I mentally decided I was in.. I just waited to see if he’d say something about it. He did after a bit of pleasant chit chat. I told him I was more than likely in. I was suddenly excited.. I kinda like being randomly adopted into other tramilies.. I was with Soundscape, TwoHats, and Bookworm awhile, with Butterfingers and Blueberry, and then Cactus and Bones are always great to be around, which they’re kinda sorta with this group, too.. it makes trail life so much more enjoyable!

Anyway-the trail was a bit harsh on some of the climbs today. The first real climb came early on, and was roughly 900 feet of elevation gain in just over a mile. Which, it was during this climb that Sunshine and MashedPotato passed me, too.. and invited me to the cabin. They were all sitting at the shelter on top of the climb, Chestnut Knob shelter, eating snacks and looking out a the incredible view. The top was mostly grass and had great views of the farmland below. I stayed a bit, ate some snacks, soaked in my surroundings.
I got up to get ready to go before the others, and as I was started to head downhill, Zebra appeared.. she had seen 2 bears this morning! I was a little jealous I didn’t have a sighting of my own. She invited me to the cabin.. haha Smash was right, I got invites by all 5 people! I told I was coming, but since they’re faster than me, I was going to get a move on so I wouldn’t be hours after them getting there.

The next few miles we’re simply lovely. I was walking downhill through grassy fields. The mountains looked majestic off in the distance in their different hues of blue. The vastness surrounding me gives me a feeling I’ve never been quite able to explain-but I think it’s because of longing for this feeling that I have such a hard time sitting still in real life. I’m always on the move, always on another adventure, because I love the way this feeling feels. It’s truly beyond words for me.

Eventually the fields turned to woods and even that was beautiful. I stopped for lunch and a water fill up at Lick Creek. The bridge washed out some time ago, so there’s warnings all around about needing to fjord it.. but for us, that water so low my feet didn’t even get wet. I sat and ate on the banks of the creek that surely used to be submerged, not that you’d be able to tell that now. The water through Virginia has not been the easiest to come by. It was also part of my decision to stay at the cabin tonight, so I wouldn’t have to fill up and tote more to camp.

The group caught me while I was eating lunch and they hung out and rested and filtered their water. LongShot was ahead of us, we all laughed that he was probably already showered at the hostel. I got my head start on them again, and I pushed along my last 5 miles. Eventually, one by one, they all passed me on the last uphill of the day, which was long and steep in parts. Zebra technically caught me on the start of the downhill, but same difference.

At the bottom of the downhill there was a road crossing with a sign to the hostel heading left. As I walked up, the 4 of them were resting at a picnic table and when they saw me they popped up so we could walk the rest of the way to the hostel together to check in.. LongShot was definitely already there, but they wanted to make sure I didn’t miss it. It was within eyesight of the picnic table, but I was happy they waited for me.

The Bear Garden Hiker Hostel is on a little farm that has chickens, and they grow their own veggies. There was a bunkhouse with all the snacks and goodies, I had a Mountain Dew.. everyone got their loaner clothes, and then Bert drove us the quarter mile down to the cabin we were renting. It was only 3pm, so it felt like we had tons of time to kill. Bert brought us fresh eggs from her chickens and told the guys that whatever potatoes they dug up they were free to have.

We took turns showering, and after I was clean I went to help dig. Sounds a little backwards, I know, but I was cold from the wet sweat so I wanted the hot shower. They showed me how to look for the potatoes and between all 6 of us (mostly everyone but me, I maybe contributed 6-8 lol), we had two big bowls of small to medium sized potatoes! It was pretty cool. One by one people showered that hadn’t already. Smash, Sunshine, and MashedPotato taught me how to play Euchre.. a card game like spades but with only the high cards and some slightly different rules. I think I caught on relatively quick. We also started popping frozen pizzas in the oven, one at a time until all 4 pizzas were cooked.. we shared and then some of the group at other things too if they weren’t full on the pizzas. We drank soda like it was beer and played cards while listening to music. I let Zebra and MashedPotato use my hairbrush, and the dreads in the back of MashedPotato’s head ended up breaking the handle off! We all laughed hysterically!

Later into the evening, after laundry was done and everyone just sat around sorting their stuff and talking, MashedPotato made up a song about my brush. Then, he told me and Zebra a story about his grandparents’ farm and his grandpa taught him how to make a turkey caller. He pulls out a piece of paper and sets to work, both of us watching him closely. After 5 or so minutes of folding, poking holes, and making a barrel on one end, we follow him outside to see his handiwork. He takes a huge breath, and as he goes to blow into his little paper contraption, he instead yells, “HERE TURKEY TURKEY TURKEY! HEEEEEERE TURKEY TURKEY TURKEY!” I am still laughing about this now. Talk about being gullible.. we ate it up! Hahahaha

Eventually, I headed to bed before the rest, to lay on my top bunk and write this out. I’m going to pop in my earplugs and get some shut eye. I have a feeling I’ll be up and out before them.. they have intentions of cooking a big breakfast with the potatoes and the eggs.. and as enticing as that is.. I need to get between 20 and 24 miles tomorrow.

They’re faster hikers than I am, so they could probably leave at 9 and still make it before dark, but I definitely don’t see me doing that, or wanting to risk not making it at least 20 miles so I can stay on track to meet Lizard the following day. Technically, I’d still be able to meet her if I did fall short any, but then I wouldn’t be able to hike out with her the following day.. and that’s my priority. While I really enjoy hanging out and meeting new people, knowing she’s so close seems silly for me to not try to catch her, at least for a little bit anyway. It’s not like we’ll be able to hike the rest of the way to Georgia together.. mom is coming in a week from now, so that’s a zero Lizard probably won’t take, plus I have Lauren’s Bachelorette weekend the following weekend, so that’s 3 more zeros.

Depending on when Lizard takes her zeros, there’s hope of me catching her again, but I’m trying to keep reality in check that I may not be able to. Also, Sauce, FarOut, and Towelie are just a bit ahead of Lizard, so depending on their zeros, there’s a very slight chance of catching them.. although I believe they’re wanting to finish before November, and I don’t see me being able to pull that one off. Even still, I won’t let hope die! I can still keep my fingers crossed that I’ll see them again! Curmudgeon on the other hand is like 170 miles ahead of me—sooooo I’ll just have to see him and Cholula some day off trail LOL, I’m not that completely unrealistic that I think I could catch him!

Anyway, I’ll quit rambling. Today was incredible. Let’s hope tomorrow is too, and that I meet my mileage goals! Goodnight!