We woke up today to a partially cloudy day. For the first couple hours we had amazing sunrise views, as we climbed above the trees. We were craning our necks back so much to look that I actually ran into Megan’s backpack at full speed once. (mk: we were hunting (looking for) wild ponies, and I had the theme song from the chase scene in The Man from Snowy River in my head all morning!)

We got to the top of Pine Mountain, passing through Fat Man’s Squeeze, a narrow rock passage. We started seeing cows as we came out of Grayson Highlands, and then we ran into all the ponies!  So many in fact that we had to weave through them on the trail (Megan took the lead here – Brown was calling her the house whisperer, he was a bit afraid of getting kicked by a wee pony which to his credit would still hurt!).

After that, we headed up Mt Rogers then down to Elk Gardens where John was waiting with a huge spread of food.  He was surprised to see us at 11, but he was ready, and we were eating hamburgers by 11:30.  The Highway men showed up too and we ate everything John had brought minus some chips.

The six of us waddled out of there and headed up Whitetop Mountain. On the way down the other side we watched a rainstorm running down the gully beside us, then we got hit by the next wave as we dropped way down. Eventually we hit the Virginia Creeper Trail, an old converted rail bed that runs into Damascus. We followed it a bit in the rain, and when it split off from the AT we decided to continue on it, while the Highway men headed up to a nearby shelter.

We followed the Creeper Trail slowly down and the rain just got harder and harder. We were walking at times in a couple inches of water. We decided to just keep going once we were totally soaked, Brown saying he thought we were close to town. Turns out we were 6 miles from town, so we rolled in at 8pm to the hostel, a day early. Fortunately, they were open and had room for us. (mk: that was my first 30 miler – we ended up doing 32. That’s over 50km!)

We peeled out of soaked clothing, and into dry scrubs courtesy of the hostel. They also did our laundry, but came out after awhile and politely suggested that another washing cycle would be a good idea. We agreed.

We ended the night lounging in scrubs on the beds eating our trail food, too tired to go find dinner. Megan and Brown did end up going on an expedition to find beer, ultimately getting a ride a mile away to an open grocery store.

DBB – Duck Rabbit Brewing (Farmville, North Carolina) – Nut Brown and Milk Stout

Find the cow!

We hurried through some cow pastures under a very pretty early morning sky and then under the Interstate to The Barn this morning. It was pretty disappointing though. Non-dairy creamer (warning: contains milk!), whipped spread (aka “butter”), syrup that only looked the part, etc etc. We all walked away wishing we had hiked by and stuck with our bars for breakfast. Don’t worry though, I still ate mine. We spent the rest of the morning bitching about it and hiking to Mt Rogers Visitor Center, where we hitched a ride into Marion to resupply.

It turned out the grocery store was about 3 miles into town, so after we got groceries and ate at Pizza Hut, we were a bit stuck for how to get back to the trail. We called around town looking for a trail angel, but it being Labour Day, everyone was busy. So we resolved to walk to the edge of town in the hot afternoon. On the way, Brown stuck his thumb out and miraculously a guy parked in a strip mall we were walking by offered us a ride. Totally out of his way, far up into the mountains. We got back up there after 5 and ran into Tim-Tam again, but we pressed on til dark, our pizza-filled bellies groaning. A pretty good day!

Mk: a pretty good day until to end your day you have to crawl in beside a pair of feet that have spent the whole day in wet socks and damp shoes from walking through dewy grass in the morning. Ryley’s feet smell like death…

Ben and Jerry’s blog: The Tonight Dough (Megan only – Ryley and Brown were too full from pizza. And by too full, I mean, Ryley asked to switch seats with me to be closer to the bathroom “just in case”. 15 minutes later he still asked for a bite of my ice cream…)

Brown coming down Chestnut Ridge

Our day started with a descent to a road and a very slow dripping spring for a water pick up, then a 1500 or so foot climb up to Chestnut knob. Brown got chased down by someone’s dog not on leash, he was pretty unimpressed. Even though we were up at 4400ft it was mostly socked in so not much to see. Our long descent down started through some open fields up top – they were a bit wet with the morning dew but still pretty even though the views were still mostly obscured. It was a bit of a roller-coaster day today but we made good time and had 14 miles done by lunch. Brown hiked this section of the trail 4 years ago with a 70lb pack – he said he remembers these climbs well and was absolutely dreading every one of them. But, we just kept at it and got the miles and climbing done. We ran into Tim-Tam (a couple we met on the way into Pearisburg when we saw that goat, they’re from Michigan and are section hiking for 2 weeks) getting water this morning, as lunch, and again at the end of the day at our campsite. We also ran into The Highwaymen at a private Pavilion on a road – they waved us over and offered us pop and homemade ice cream. They’d apparently made a good impression on the folks who were having their family reunion that day!

We got in 26 miles and my feet are barking! We’re camped a couple miles away from an interstate and the town of Atkins where we’re hoping to get breakfast from “The Barn” (a restaurant just off trail) even though tomorrow’s a holiday… Fingers crossed!

We hiked down from the shelter to an access road, along it over an interstate and up to highest 52 where we hitched into Bland. We were dropped off at the Sunoco gas station – also the local eatery (promising…), which is a little kitchen/grill and dining area in the back. Saturday morning meant all you can eat buffet for $5.89. I opted to order French toast but Brown and Ryley had the AYCE (Ryley said it was better than the buffet breakfast last weekend at a real restaurant). Standards started pretty low, though 🙂 It was no waffle breakfast at Judy and Jimmy’s, that’s for sure! On the way to the grocery store we stopped to check out the farmer’s market with a selection of fresh local produce (hurray!) and also a gun and ammo trade set up. Ummmmm…..interesting? I told the gents there that farmer’s markets in Canada didn’t usually have a gun trade section… But I DID buy gherkins (miniature cucumbers but they look like dinosaur eggs? or mini watermelons?) and a tomato and was given a few apples. Amazing!!

After getting a couple days of groceries and stopping in at the post office we hitched back to the trail and headed onwards. Brown once again worked his magic – a pick up drive by but then u-turned to pick him (and us) up! We stopped for a late lunch around 2, where we met The Mule – a Nobo headed to Waynesboro to work for the winter then continue on next spring. A few miles later we stopped at a shelter to tank up on water for a long dry section where we knew we’d be stopping for the night. There was a long slog uphill after the shelter then rocky ridge walking. We didn’t find somewhere to set up camp until 6:30pm but we’re happy to have gotten 23 or so miles in even with the 3h break in town. Tomorrow looks like a lot of up and down – maybe we’ll get to see something, though?

Relaxing at Woods Hole

We didn’t rush out of the hostel, planning to hang out most of the day. We had a late, communal breakfast with everyone (sausage, eggs, crepes, and fresh bread). After that, we all helped get some chopped logs out of the woods for their water heater. In exchange, Neville baked us all our own loaf of bread. We had ours fresh out of the oven at 3, along with butter, and a giant fruit milkshake. Before the bread, we watched thunderstorms roll through from noon onwards from the dry porch. We finally dragged out of there at 4 and hiked a nice 7 miles to the closest shelter – both of us in new shoes we’d had sent to Wood’s Hole. Megan’s old ones actually had a hole right through the sole and insole. At the shelter we met a section hiker named Golden Bear there and hung out for a bit. We were all too full to actually eat our dinners.

Brown in the green tunnel

This is the reality of the AT

Town day today, so everyone was up pre-dawn and hiking as soon it was light. We watched the sun rise over a beautiful powerline swath, and also got more great views from near Rice Shelter. We also saw a skunk right on the trail somewhere in here, but it scooted away pretty quickly once we almost stumbled on it. After that, a long downward slog, past a landfill, and then a stream definitely not to drink from. We caught up to a couple section hikers, Tim and Tammy, as they were taking pictures of a goat that was hanging out by the trail. After we went by the goat followed us, in fact walking right behind me for half a mile. It was pretty funny!

We hit the road to town and the goat stopped. We made our way into town, resupplied, ate at DQ, then sent our stuff up to Woods Hole Hostel with Neville, the owner. She dropped us off back at the trail, which immediately went up 2000 feet to Angels Landing. I was pretty hurting from all the eating, and had to stop a bunch just to digest. It was still great with no pack.

We cruised all afternoon though and got to the hostel, 20 miles in, by 4. We showered and hung out on the porch couch and hammock until we were called in to help make communal dinner – salad made with fresh veggies out of the garden, and homemade pizza with home canned tomato sauce, more garden veggies, and beef and bacon raised on the farm. Neville said they haven’t bought meat from the store in 6 or 7 years! Woods Hole is a farm and hostel based on sustainable living – farming, beekeeping, and hosting hikers! We had locally made coconut ice cream for dessert. This may now be the best meal we’ve had on this trip!

We also met the next few Southbounders – three brothers who call themselves The Highwaymen. There used to be a fourth member who quit (Johnny Cash).  They’ve been following us the whole way, always just a bit behind, reading our notes in the trail logs. They were very excited to meet us.

We started today with a big 2000 foot climb straight out of camp. I’m definitely noticing the sunrise being later. I was rubbing my eyes for the first half hour of hiking wondering if I was going blind. Anyways, we hacked our way up to a ridge then followed it along a very rocky path until lunch. We are passing through lots of rhododendron tunnel, and I wish we had been in the area when they were in bloom!

We passed our first river that our maps have marked as “do not drink”…. Yum. After lunch another long climb got us onto a much smoother ridge that we followed the rest of the day, rolling up and down.

Filtering water and napping

Not a lot to say about today. We descended and climbed 3 grueling ridges and now I’m tired! There was quite a bit though of unpleasant side sloping trail and side sloping rocks, and not much to see. I did see a faun trying to hide from me while it’s mother ran away. Pretty cute! We also saw cows – Brown and Megan were excited enough about the cows they walked right by me standing beside a giant 300 year old Oak tree… Not quite as big as the one we saw in New York, though.