weary as water

every time i blink i have a tiny dream

Day 63: Woods Hole Hostel to Pearisburg

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10 miles

It is pretty easy to walk in the cold miserable rain when you have a prize waiting for you. AWE will be here today! You have no idea how excited I am (and how excited OWL is to see her partner, AT).

We left the hostel at the last possible moment – around noon – to put us in Pearisburg a little before AWE & AT. M80 & Trooper were planning on spending the night in Pearisburg, and said we were welcome to stop by their hotel room to take a shower before we left to go to civilization…Blacksburg. Honestly I don’t remember that much about the walk – I was a focused walking machine! Everything was super foggy – until the last 3 miles when the fog and rain started to clear. We saw some great views from Angel’s View, and as we descended into Pearisburg the light in the forest was amazing. A sign of good things to come, I am certain!

We stopped by M80 & Trooper’s room – it was really psychedelic! The hotel didn’t have any rooms left, but they had a former game room they were planning on setting up as another room…they brought a bed/dresser/tv/chair in to this very colorful room, and M80 & Trooper were glad to have it!

After I showered, we went across the street to the Mexican restaurant for margaritas. I texted AWE & AT to let her know we had a change of location, but neither of them texted me back. About 10 minutes later, they walked into the restaurant! It was amazing to see AWE. I missed her so much.

We had drinks (Trooper had the LARGEST DRINK OF ALL) and ate dinner. And then we drove to Blacksburg for 3 days of R&R.

 
 

 

Day 51: fat tire blazing on the Virginia creeper trail

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My toe did not want me to walk on it today, so we talked about taking another zero. Owl said she had heard a couple people we had been hiking with talk about hiking the Virginia creeper trail (a rails to trails conversion) up to where it intersects with the AT, because it is really pretty. After we both agreed that sounded like a pretty good idea, it was a very small leap to make the decision to rent bikes and bike down the trail into Damascus. Then tomorrow we will get a shuttle to where it intersects the AT, and hike on from there.

I had a fantastic time biking down the mountain. The trail goes downhill almost the entire way, so it was a very easy ride. The weather was perfect (low 60s and sunny), and we laughed and played like kids all the way down.

Once we got back into town, we rode out to the “welcome to Damascus” sign, where Hammer, Mallet, and friends were hanging out. Mallet threw a frisbee to Owl on her bike, and she *almost* caught it!

I had the most awesome helmet hair ever.

We ate lunch at the blue blaze cafe (gain!), then went back to the room to get the bounce box and box o stuff for home ready, then to the post office. Stopped at the outfitter so Owl could check for more mail – she had 5 more cards yesterday and one more today – then back to blue blaze for happy hour.

Saw m80 and trooper at the outfitter; m80 had the hiker virus so they are taking an extra zero tomorrow. Poor guy!

My toe still hurts but I am hoping by tomorrow the swelling will go down and it won’t hurt to walk. Aw yeah, I’m a dreamer!

Day 48: Iron Mountain Shelter -> Abingdon Gap Shelter

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16 miles

Nice and easy (but long!) day. Walked today with Shutterbug. She reminds me a lot of a younger version of one of my friends from back home. We walked through a cattle field today. Shutterbug was nervous but I was just walking. There were baby cows! Apparantly M80 & Trooper had trouble with the cow pasture because of their dog, Willow. M80 picked up Willow, who was growling and baring her teeth, and Trooper walked in front of them hitting her sticks together. Trooper said later that the cows started surrounding them and it was very scary. Yet another reason I am glad I don’t have a dog on the trail!

Mom sent a nice email. I’m glad to have such a supportive family.

Just before the trail crossed a road there was a big metal box with crosses on it; trail magic by a local baptist “Girls in Action” church group. Had a first aid kit, some candy, and ice cold sodas.

Met two section hikers; Timberlake & his friend. They are both in their 70s and are section hiking parts of the AT that they like. They had two dogs with them; Max and Chobe. Timberlake said, “tell me where Chobe is and I’ll give you a prize”….and I said…”on a map?” which his friend thought was hilarious. I didn’t get a prize, though.

Ate lunch with M80/Trooper/Willow/Owl/Shutterbug. I really like meeting up for lunch with a group.

Took my time getting to the shelter – man my feet hurt – but was able to talk with AWE for a while. So there are some benefits to being slow. 🙂

At the shelter with Owl, shutterbug, big yank, and techie. M80 & Trooper are tenting (as usual), and a British guy named Smiles is tenting also. We are all very excited to get into Damascus tomorrow. Big Yank has a celebratory beer he has been carrying for 40 miles to drink at the Virginia border. And, of course, it is Owl’s birthday tomorrow!

Day 46: Kincora to Watauga Lake Shelter

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Cold today – I am wearing pants. But it is really nice to have the sun out!

It was hard to leave Kincora – very comfortable and welcoming place – but we did. There was a really cool bridge over the river – nice start to the day. We dropped down into Laurel falls – an amazing amount of water pours over those falls. Saw lots of dayhikers so it must be Saturday.

Saw the CleverGirl parade slackpacking (CleverGirl, DumpTruck, Apollo, HotDog, Whistle, and one guy I didn’t recognize). They are slacking all the way into Damascus, lucky dogs!

They stopped at a small overlook so I did too – CleverGirl said “it’s mile 420, on 4/20!”. Sure enough there was a rock there denoting the mileage. Pretty neat (even though I don’t smoke).

The ups today seemed to last forever! But I kept walking…and eventually I got to Watauga Lake. There were two donkeys in a pasture by the road – they ran up to the fence as soon as they saw me but were VERY disappointed that I didn’t have anything for them to eat. (One even bared his teeth at me).

Saw a sign about a trail detour – and another about trail magic – so went to check them out. “Knock on wood” (so named because she was incredibly unlucky….she would say “hey it’s awesome that it hasn’t rained in a while” and a thunderstorm would start) and some friends were there with sodas, fruit, and coffee singles/candy bits. Stopped to talk with them for a while and then went on to the shelter.

The detour was an official detour (not like the Forest Service detour) due to flooding on the trail. So instead of walking the trail along the lakeshore, we walked on the road for about a quarter of a mile before going into the woods. The walk was really peaceful – I love being around water – and I got to the shelter pretty early.

Shutterbug & OWL had already set up in the shelter, so I set up too. Cooked dinner and was even able to FaceTime with AWE. There was a phone in the shelter (although it was not hooked up to anything) – pretty funny.

Half&Half came in pretty late, and M80/Trooper/Willow came in after that. M80’s group did over 24 miles today…crazy!