627.4 miles in

I’m in Pearisburg, VA!  How’d I get here?  Allow me to elucidate…

That miserable Tuesday night when I hiked 33 miles and stayed in Damascus, Bearbait rolled in shortly afterward and he managed to find a bunk at the Hiker’s Inn hostel.  I’m glad – it was miserable outside and no one should have had to tent in that weather.  The next morning I ate breakfast at In The Country, which I unfortunately can’t recommend.  The food was expensive and marginal – I had 4 pancakes, 3 eggs scrambled, and 3 slices of bacon which was obviously the pre-cooked microwaveable stuff, and I paid $10 for it.  In fact I had a hard time in general finding breakfast in Damascus.  The next morning I ate at Cowboy’s, which was a gas station, and had about the same food (quality and quantity), and it was $5.  I’m happy to announce that Damascus has far better lunch and dinner options than breakfast.  Those options are all of the following restaurants: Quincy’s.  The dinner I ate at Quincy’s was wonderful.  I started the meal with a bowl of bean soup and a large hunk of corn bread, then segued into a 12″ supreme pizza, and the coup de grâce was a 6″ philly cheesesteak sub with chips.  In addition, I moisturized all that starch with three pints of microbrew.  All of it was wonderful.  If you’re in Damascus, eat at Quincy’s.  I shared my meal with some fellow hikers, including Rehash, G-Man, Free, and two brothers of whom I regrettably can not recall the names.  Scribbles and Slo-Goin’ made it into Damascus the same day as myself, and I ran into them at the library while writing my last update.  There was a wonderful hiker box at the outfitter’s hostel – it contained fresh fruit, dry-roasted almonds, Snickers, CLIF bars, Kashi bars, and other generally-desired things of which I availed myself.  After pilfering that hiker box, I didn’t need to shop much, but I shopped a little anyway so I could send Holly a present.

When I left Damascus on Thursday I hiked 15.5 miles to Lost Mountain Shelter.  The terrain was glorious, but I was still hurting pretty badly from that 33.4 mile marathon.  I caught up to Scribbles and Slo-Goin’ on the trail at a tunnel of rhododendron in full bloom.  The mountain laurel were also out in force, but this was the first time I’ve seen the rhodies blooming in groups – at least some good came from those horrible, rainy days.  There was a lot of water on the trail, and a couple unexpected surprises – a Peavey guitar pick and a Papa John’s baseball cap.  Odd.  Upon stopping for the evening I quickly discovered that the privies are back!  It’s nice not having to squat in the rain every morning.  In addition, this particular privy included the full text of Dr Suess’s The Lorax.  I endured the smell long enough to read the story.

Interesting fact about privies: In Georgia you’re supposed to urinate in the woods and defecate in the privy, and toss in a handful of the provided wood chips after use.  In North Carolina, they want you to urinate in the privy, and after use you’re supposed to scavenge some dead leaves and toss those in, as North Carolina does not provide wood chips for your convenience.  In Tennessee, you get a shovel.  In Virginia, privies are back but again you’re not allowed to urinate in them, and you’re specifically instructed not to add dead leaves or sticks to the privy, but instead toss in a “grapefruit-sized handful of duff” after use.

On Friday I hiked17.3 miles to Wise Shelter.  The terrain on the way there was picturesque (as all thru-hikers are aware, this is synonymous with “grueling”).  There were some rather large rock faces on the trail, including a few that were large enough to attract rock climbers.  I spotted a crash pad and chalk-bearing shirtless men.  The trail also went through a cave for about 20 feet, which was cool, but surprisingly difficult to navigate while wearing a pack.  I encountered a man who might be insane.  When he saw the mousetraps hanging on my pack, he initiated a conversation that spiralled uncontrollably into an aneurysm.  Behold:

Insane man: Are those traps for mice, or for actual squirrels?
Me: They're for mice. In the shelters.
Insane man: Oh... Are you a ridge runner?
Me: No. Just a thru-hiker who doesn't want his food stolen.
Insane man: Do you eat the mice?
Me: No. I'm leaving now. Goodbye.

See?  Crazy.  Oh, also I saw a bunch of wild ponies on this hike.  It was pretty cool.  They lick the salt off you.  Once I reached the shelter I met a guy named Kitchen Sink who was frying pancakes over a campfire using the bottom of his cooking pot.  He shared the pancakes, so he was instantly my friend.  He also has a history in culinary arts and had a lot of information about mushrooms and other hiking/cooking techniques that were interesting the first time, but lost their luster in repeated tellings of the story.  There was also a kid at the shelter with us who had never seen or heard of Sudoku.  Toto gave the kid a few and explained the concept (put the digits 1-9 in every row, column, and box).  Shortly after, Toto explained again, then a third time later that night, and shortly afterwards the kid declared Sudoku puzzles to be “too complicated”, and gave up.

On Saturday I hiked 20.0 miles to Trimpi Shelter.  On the way I met a man walking three dogs who told me where to find his truck, and that there was a cooler in the back with trail magic.  He gave me a Snickers bar on the spot, and I got a beer and bagel from the cooler later.  He’s my hero.  I breaked for lunch at Hurricane Mountain Shelter, where I found 2 abandoned packets of tuna.  What do you do with food inexplicably found in the woods?  That’s right, you eat it before anyone else notices it’s there.  I ate it.  On the way to Trimpi I met a few groups of weekend hikers.  A few of them instantly pegged me as a thru hiker, and all of them were quite impressed that I’d walked from Georgia, especially in sandals.  When a thru-hiker reaches Virginia, suddenly it’s a big deal.

I started Sunday very excited, because the guidebook contained the following text 0.8 miles North of Trimpi Shelter:
Fence stiles 0.2 apart, cattle graze in area, close gates behind you. Abandoned school bus.

Abandoned school bus?  Awesome.  Absolutely the highlight of my entire hike.  I was completely stoked about snapping a photo and captioning it “Magic Bus!” on this blog.  0.8 miles later however, I was sorely disappointed to discover that the Magic Bus had magically vanished.  Bam-Bam, a fellow thru-hiker who has hiked this section in the past, confirmed for me that the bus is in fact gone, and I didn’t just miss it.  Tragic.  Thankfully, there were more perks awaiting me this day.  Bearbait and I ran across some trail magic after a bit, and after another bit we reached Partnership Shelter, which is very close to a visitor’s center for some state park thing.  We ordered pizza from the visitor’s center and took showers at the shelter.  We also met up with Hollywood and Pickles at the visitor’s center.  After lunch we continued on to Chatfield Shelter where we met David, a section hiker who’s new to the trail and had a very skewed conception of trail culture.  We filled him in and regaled him with stories of our past meals.  Bam-Bam and Cuban rolled in as well, and later that night there was a pretty intense thunderstorm.

Monday morning I rushed to Atkins to resupply at the gas station right there on the trail.  After resupplying I headed to a restaurant across the street called The Barn which is famous for serving a 16 oz hiker burger.  Unfortunately they were still serving breakfast when I arrived, so I had the 2-of-everything meal instead: 2 pancakes, 2 sausage patties, 2 pieces of bacon, 2 eggs scrambled, hashbrowns, a biscuit, and milk.  Tasty.  The waittress was even nice enough to let Cuban and I charge our electronics while we ate.  I greatly appreciated this gesture since my extra camera battery was ruined in the rain during my 33.4 mile race to Damascus.  After brunch I raced to Knot Maul Branch Shelter because I’d heard most of the Trail Days crowd had stayed in Atkins the previous night, and would likely be heading to Knot Maul Branch with me.  I passed about 20 people on the trail, most of which were camped out at a cooler packed full of some great trail magic.  Met up with Hollywood, Pickles, Bearbait, and Cuban at this shelter for the night.  18.4 miles total that day.

I was up and moving early Tuesday to beat the crowd to Jenkins Shelter 19.0 miles North.  The morning was cool, but the sun came out eventually and started warming everything up, and right as I stepped into a large clearing at the top of the mountain, I heard thunder.  I started walking faster.  The thunder kept getting closer, and I knew I was within a couple miles (2.1, actually) of Chestnut Knob Shelter, so I started running.  Well, kind of running.  It’s as much of a run as anyone can manage while wearing a backpack.  Imagine a pot-bellied trucker crouched and leaning backward a bit, legs moving as quickly as possible while he pushes himself upward and forward using ski poles.  It was elegant, but it was as fast as I’ve ever moved while wearing that pack.  Apparently it was fast enough, because I ducked into Chestnut Knob Shelter at 11:00am, right as the rain started.  A few minutes later Bearbait came racing into the shelter as well.  It was a pretty great shelter for riding out a thunderstorm – four concrete walls and a door that closes.  It would have been a wonderful shelter to spend the night, but the storm only lasted about 30 minutes, after which the rain only lasted another 30, and by 1:00pm the sun was out and it was a glorious day.  I set out to cover 10 miles to Jenkins Shelter, and about 2-3 miles from Jenkins, I heard thunder, again.  Again, I ran faster than I’ve ever moved with a pack, and again I ducked into the shelter right as the rain started.  Many more hikers rolled into the shelter afterward, and they were all complaining about the giant tree that was blocking the AT.  I didn’t remember any such tree.  It must have fallen within a couple minutes of my passing.  I think I’m the only hiker who wasn’t caught in the rain at least once that day.  Covered 19 miles that day while dodging lightning.  Met a few new friends in the shelter that evening as well – Jungle Boots, Meltdown, Jesus, and Possum.  Jungle Boots is hilarious.  Meltdown is a girl who curses like a sailor at every inconvenience.  Jesus is the crazy bastard that runs the downhills.  Possum is a nice lady from Australia who can’t understand mountain weather because Australia has no mountains.  I might have seen a bear this day too – I saw something black run around a corner.

I was awake bright and early on Wednesday, and I was walking by 7:20am.  Early in the hike I stumbled upon a cooler of trail magic that still had 2 Propel waters in it – I drank one.  100 feet from the cooler there was a campsite that looked like something out of Fallout.  There was a recliner, old-fashioned TV, minivan bench seat, a laptop, and toilet bowl.  There was also a cross-section of a tree trunk hung on a tree with a broken chunk of mirror attached, and the inscription “U R Beautiful”.  It was pretty surreal.  I did 14 miles to Helvey’s Mill Shelter where Hollywood was nice enough to fetch water for both of us.  I greatly appreciated this gesture since the shelter was 0.25 miles down a side trail, and the water was another 0.3 miles down a switch-backed trail from the shelter.  The bugs were so much worse today than they’ve ever been.  They’ve definitely introduced me to a new circle of hell.  I’m completely covered in bites.  On my left hand alone, literally wrist to fingertips, I have 9 bites.  All of them itch like crazy.  It’s 85F so you can’t wear long pants and sleeves as a defense.  DEET is more marinade than repellant – it helps a bit if the bugs have other options, but if I’m the only person in the area, they don’t care if I’m wearing repellant or not.  The trail was incredibly dry – I went 11 miles with no chance to get water, including 1 stream the guidebook referenced that turned out to not exist, and it had just thunderstormed the day before.  Glad I carry 2 liters of water out of camp.  I met some new friends at Jenny Knob Shelter – DC, Raw Indy, and Nate Dog.  DC wears a tweed blazer with leather elbow pads that is “D”ry “C”lean only, Raw Indy is on a raw vegan diet and is from Indiana, and Nate Dog is just Nate Dog.  Fun fact: Raw Indy was actually on that fasting diet where you only drink a concoction of lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper, and she did it for 40 days.  Amazingly, she didn’t die.  DC carried sassafras and pine needles into camp and made sassafras/pine tea.  It smelled wonderful but was flavourless.

On Thursday I walked 7 miles to a road crossing, then followed the road 0.5 miles to Trent’s Grocery where I had a Powerade, ice cream sandwich, hamburger, and philly cheesesteak, then I hiked another 10 miles to Woods Hole Hostel.  There was one big climb and descent right before the hostel on which my knee pain started acting up pretty badly.  I had to stop to put on my knee brace.  The hostel was very nice, though personally I’d say dinner was overpriced.  The owners are vegetarian and have their own garden.  They roast their own coffee beans, they grow their own food, and all the food you get there, they make themselves.  That’s kinda cool, but it’s all that new-age, organic, free-trade, spirit-healing, hippy stuff that’s so popular right now, which means you’re paying a premium for it.  Personally, I don’t care where my food comes from, so I don’t really feel like I got my money’s worth out of the meals there.  That being said, the food tasted pretty good, and they’re very nice people, and it’s a wonderful hostel.  If you get the chance, you should definitely stay there – just, you might want to order a pizza for dinner instead.

Friday (today) my intention was to cover 10 miles from Woods Hole Hostel to Pearisburg, VA where I would do some quick grocery shopping and then cover another 7 miles to Rice Field Shelter.  This would put me 13 miles from Pine Swamp Branch Shelter, near which there is a hiker feed Saturday (tomorrow).  I figured I could cover 13 miles by noonish without a problem.  Unfortunately my knee pain started up again pretty bad this morning and I had to re-dose on ibuprofen to make it to Pearisburg, so I decided it best to stop in town and ice the knee, and take a day off.  So now I’m in Pearisburg at the Plaza Hotel.  I met up with Nate Dog on the walk here and he’s got the same knee pain as myself, so we’re sharing a room and we’re both relaxing and icing our knees for awhile.  The good news is that tomorrow there’s a shuttle from this hotel into the hiker feed, so I may still be able to attend the party even without being able to walk there.  For the moment however, I’ve got a six-pack of Blue Moon that I’m going to share with Nate Dog.

Until next time.