time to turn in.
As you can imagine the Tuesday I last updated you turned into a zero! I had a walk to Walmart with Pancake and did my re-supply, it was a fair old walk considering it was supposed to be a non walking day, four miles there and back! Walking through, Pearisburg seemed to be a slightly more affluent town than others so far on the trail and I suffered my first bit of abuse as someone driving past in a car told me to 'get a f***ing job'! Obviously not all towns in the AT are as hiker friendly as others! Apart from that not much else happened on Tuesday, i took it easy most of the day before an evening meal of a Pizza, Pringles and Yeung Ling, Americas oldest beer and the best lager I've drunk across here so far. I studied my guide and planned the next few days even booking a room in Dalesville which was the next town stop for Tue 31 May. Looking at the terrain over the next week that might have been a little ambitious, lots of hills to contend with again!
An early start had been planned for Wednesday but leaving town is never that easy, I went to Dairy Queen for breakfast and then realised that my phone hadn't backed up to the cloud for over a week so thought I'd quickly do that. However it kept saying failed to back up so after much trying Pancake suggested the age old way of fixing stuff; turn it off then on again and sure enough it then backed up first time, who'd have thought it! So the early start turned into leaving town at 10.30 and by the time I'd walked the mile to the trail head it was 11am. Oh well, best laid plans and all that!
Going out of town as nearly always there was a mountain to climb, it was a long slow one of sixteen hundred feet over five and a half miles but certainly by no means one of the worst. Although an early start had been missed the actual plan for the day was to only go about eight miles so camp was reached and set up early allowing me to relax in my hammock for a while. The night was predicted to be clear so I decided against my tarp so that I could see the stars shining above me. I do love that about hammocking, lying down and having that enormous universe as the ceiling, it's mesmerising. It's just a shame I'd only been able to do it a couple of times so far on this trip, on that subject it hadn't actually rained at all that day, the forecast was for a bright, warm spell which would be long overdue.
Pancake and I arrived at camp and a lady who only came out of her tent twice briefly the whole time she was there was already set up. Fun Guy turned up a bit later then two lady section hikers who were southbound and said they'd seen a bear about half a mile from camp, followed by Sneaky Pete, No Worries, Face Plant, Bubble Goose and Costa Rica (who later decided to night hike, which some people do but not sure I'd want to do it with all the rocks and roots in this particular state). As I said, early in camp meant all the jobs were done early and so after some crazy conversations around the campfire it was time to turn in. Just as everyone was preparing to go to bed two brazen deer walked around the camp startling everyone and that was just the start of a long night ahead! Not long after, the mystery woman screamed, sending a shiver down my spine. No Worries later confirmed it was her as he was camped next to her. Then I heard something very large walking in the undergrowth, no way was it a deer. The thud, thud it made was a bear, for sure. I scrambled for my headlamp and shone it around as I felt very exposed all of a sudden. I didn't see the perpetrator but after seeing those bears last week and the ladies saying they'd seen the bear earlier i was very jumpy! After finally somehow dozing off the final insult came at 4.30am when it started to rain. There I was rushing around in the dark once again trying to put up my tarp before everything got wet whilst cursing the Virginian weather. I could see No Worries doing exactly the same thing so I wasn't the only one to put mis placed trust in the forecast. The rest of the night, not that was much left, passed without incident thankfully but by the time I got up I was shattered, sleeping in the woods was turning out to be quite restless! As we were eating breakfast a section hiker who i met the previous day came by and said he'd just seen a bear as he came out the last shelter, whether it was the same bear that the lady's had seen last night is questionable but it fits in with everything that had happened and not long into the mornings hike I came across a big pile of turquoise coloured bear poop! All the signs pointed to my suspicions being confirmed.
Thursday's hike started along a rocky ridge line which seemed to be defining for Virginia, not much to see but rocks and trees. A long downhill followed through lush almost rain forest like shrubbery and the obligatory rain came down again, soaking me as I reached Pine Swamp Branch shelter, aptly named with all the mud that was along the trail. Irie was at the shelter and decided to stop for the day but after a brief bite to eat myself and Pancake pushed on to Captains. Captains is famous on the trail as to get there you have to cross a river via a zip line which was a first for me but good fun nonetheless. Captain opens up his property for hikers and has a fridge on his back porch stocked with every kind of soda imaginable. Stoney, who I hadn't seen in a while was there and after a chat with him and a welcome refreshment we tackled the final steep climb of the day to Bailey Gap shelter. Because of all the stops it was quite late getting there but there was only Sonja and Bernd and Old Timer there and after a quick fruitless search for somewhere to hammock I decided to sleep in the shelter itself with the others whilst Pancake found himself a pitch for his tent. Just as I was dozing off Sneaky Pete and No Worries arrived and also hunkered down in the shelter. It had been a long day for only 14.9 miles but I was still on schedule for Daleville.
Friday started with another rocky ridge line for about six miles which tested my patience followed by a steep downhill, a shower of rain, a short lunch at a shelter and a long two and a half mile uphill. Halfway up the heavens opened once again and this time it was torrential, I was absolutely soaked to the skin and all the rocks became slippery making the trail treacherous, unfortunately my guide was in my shorts pocket and was in a right state, luckily I had put my phone in a ziplock bag otherwise that also would have born the brunt of the inclement weather. I was beginning to understand the term 'Virginia Blues'. Apparently a lot of people quit the trail in Virginia and therefore that's where the phrase comes from. There are many reasons; running out of money, the honeymoon period is over, accumulation of injuries so the term is probably a little unfair on the state itself but all the rocks and rain must also be contributory factors for people returning to everyday life. In recent days we'd heard of a few people we knew who had left the trail behind. Pancake and I reached Laurel Creek shelter, halfway down the other side of the mountain at about 5.30pm but as the rain had stopped and the sun had come out for the first time I decided to crack on so late in the day. I figured three more miles would take me to the bottom of the next hill ready for a climb to start the next day. Pancake followed and for once I stretched out a good lead going down the hill and through some pastures and meadows before waiting at the road which leads to Newport where I waited with aching feet. After another mile we reached the stream where we'd planned on staying and found a decent camping spot and joined up once again with Sneaky Pete and Costa Rica and a German girl called Moon Fire. It was even later than the night before but a campfire was lit, food was quickly eaten and the rain started again before I got in my hammock (tarp safely up!) for a slightly better nights sleep. I forgot to mention a half mile area that had been badly burnt by a wild fire a week previously which was quite a sad sight to see, overall that day 17.9 miles had been covered but boy did my feet know it.
The aforementioned climb that started the next day was preceded by going past Keffer Oak an absolute monster of a tree, over eighteen feet around this behemoth is over three hundred years old and is the largest Oak tree on the south of the AT, an impressive sight indeed. The climb itself was a very painful steep one and I really struggled, falling behind everyone else by some distance, I just couldn't seem to get going and was having one of those days where you don't feel right physically or mentally, to be honest, half the battle is a mental one and I was now fighting not just the terrain but my own mind. After what seemed like an eternity I finally reached the top, after all the rain it was now extremely humid and water sources also seemed to be scarce in this part of Virginia so I sat down for a while, let the sweat stop pumping out of me and tried to summon up the energy to crack on. I just got into my stride on a rare even part of the trail when I nearly walked straight into a black snake sunning itself right in the middle of the trail. The five foot fat reptile and I both recoiled at the same time and I blasphemed in shock before taking a couple of pictures and watched it slide into the undergrowth before making my own way forward. The next shelter was only four miles into the day but I didn't reach it until gone midday and any hope of the twenty mile day which I had planned was out of the window. It was the last water source for six miles but was nearly half a mile off the trail and as I didn't fancy doing the extra mile there and back I stupidly decided to risk going on with only a third of a litre of water left, I'd also run out of Aqua Mira drops which meant I had no water treatment left until the Ourfitters in Daleville. I sometimes didn't treat the water anyway if it came direct from a rock or if it was quite high as the risks were minimal, some people never treated any water but sometimes the sources were pretty sketchy so I didn't like to risk it but now I had no choice. The trail looked pretty flat but it turned out to be another rocky ridge line with no cover from trees and for a change the sun was out and hot and my decision to not get any water was turning out to be a bad one. By the time I reached what was marked as an unreliable spring which thankfully was a good clear source I was feeling dehydrated and berating myself for my folly. I sat there for a while quenching my thirst, filling up with two litres before going the final mile downhill to Nidday shelter. I'd only done nine miles and it was about 4pm and I considered calling it a day. Sonja and Bernd were there and they said Pancake and Moon Fire had left about ten minutes previously with the plan of camping about two miles further on so I decided to try and find them. Once I got to the area where they should be I walked a while meeting Red Bear and Sixty Sense at different spots before giving up and going back to where Sixty Semse had camped and he told me they had decided to try to get to Trout Creek which was a further seven miles away. There was no way I could have made that so I set up my hammock and even though it was a pleasant evening I'd finally learned my lesson and half put up my tarp so it would be easy to flip over if needed in the night. I cooked over the fire, hung my bear bag and was ready for bed at 8pm. It was a lovely little spot by the stream which was again the last water source until Trout Creek and even though there were only me and Sixty Sense id overcome my fears from the other night and got a half decent nights sleep. Once it was dark, for the first time, I saw fireflies flashing in the night, again a nice sight. And the good news was it stayed dry which was an added bonus.
I was up bright and early Sunday morning although not as early as Sixty Sense who was on the trail by 6.30! I was out of my hammock by seven and although there were a few drops of rain I managed to start a fire and made myself a cup of coffee before taking everything down, filling up two litres of water and getting on trail myself by 8.30. I felt much better than the previous day and was soon at the top of Brush Mountain which took me up sixteen hundred feet. At the top was a monument to Audie Murphy who was the most decorated American soldier of WWll and had died in a plane crash nearby, quite fitting I was there the day before Memorial Day. I stopped there for a while before starting my descent the other side. Halfway down a guy coming up said if I was lucky I would catch some trail magic at the bottom, at that point I was about to stop and take a stone out of my boot but I flew down that mountain instead and nearly broke my neck at the thought of free refreshments! I made it just in time as they had been there for four days apparently and were packing up. It was a couple called Old Goat and Granny who's daughter had hiked the trail two years ago and were inspired to do it by her. I had a baloney sandwich, some pancakes, a Coke, some bottled water and a lovely can of Miller Lite which Red Bear had kindly saved for me as he said it wasn't everyday you got to have a beer with an Englishman! I must have been there for an hour and then it was time to tackle the second mountain of the day. Fuelled by the treats I started well and made good time for the first mile but then the terrain started to get very rocky again and I realised that Dragons Tooth was going to be no ordinary mountain. For the next three miles I struggled, climbed, pushed and cursed my way towards the top clambering over huge boulders and then I dropped my water leaving me short for the second day running. At the top there were a lot of day hikers who weren't carrying forty pound backpacks and even some of them were struggling. The monolith itself was pretty impressive and after a couple of pics I started my descent. If I'd thought the uphill was bad then I hadn't seen anything yet! Going down was ridiculous, how people don't break bones going down there is beyond me, there were points where I had to take off my backpack, throw it down the drops and clamber down like a mountaineer holding onto the rocks whilst trying to find a foothold. This had been by far my toughest day on the trail and later discussing it with other people most thought the same. Once I got to Lost Spectacles Gap I thought I was through the worst of it but the last 1.7 miles down from there weren't much better in places and the day just never seemed as though it was going to end. I really wasn't enjoying it. Finally at the bottom I reached Newport Road and got off the trail to a Gas station about half a mile away that sold hot food and plenty of other treats. I had cheeseburger and fries and sat outside eating it feeling shell shocked at what I had just experienced. I had planned on going back on trail and doing another couple of miles but as I sat there the mini bus from Four Pines Hostel showed up and at that point it started to rain again so I asked if there was room for one more and took a ride there instead. I'd covered 14.9 miles and two mountains over the day but it felt like double that and I was as exhausted as I'd been since the beginning, all those people who'd said Virginia got easier were full of crap! Four Pines was a hostel spread over a farm and there were at least fifty hikers stopping there including the crowd of party people who weren't really hiking at all but hitching rides (yellow blazing) most of the way. I found a place in the barn at the top of the field to sleep and lay my sleeping bag out before having a couple of beers to end the day. That wasn't a wise decision as I had not drunk enough water and awoke the next day dehydrated and with a headache. As I said there were a lot of people there including Scout who I hadn't seen since Damascus, Sonja and Bernd, Sixty Sense, Old Timer, Stoney, Wheels and Pinecone.
After the previous day's exertions and the news that the shelter where I had planned to stop that night was closed due to bear activity coupled with the fact that it was Memorial Day and McAfee knob would be teeming with day hikers I decided to catch a ride with Eddie who worked at Four Pines into Daleville a day earlier than planned and then go back to McAfee later on in the week when it was less busy. It means I'll fall behind a few people but also give others a chance to catch up!
So yesterday I got into Daleville, checked in at the Howard Johnson motel and chilled out for the day, they opened the pool which was nice so I dangled my feet in, was a bit cold though! I caught up with a few people again including Sneaky Pete and No Worries, Olives Human, Doug and Cup of Tea. I still felt a bit rough from the dehydration so didn't do a lot else apart from update Facebook and start writing this. I even put the TV in the room on and watched a bit of football. I saw Moon Fire whilst I was doing laundry and she said Pancake was waiting for me at McAfee Knob. I had no idea he would do that and with no way of letting him know, I felt bad but as the saying goes 'hike your own hike' so I figured he would work it out in the end and sure enough he turned up today.
This morning I had breakfast with Russ (Costa Rica) and he surprised me by saying his two travelling partners Ossie and Bigging had both quit on the same day last week and then I saw on Facebook that Beasterman, who was the first guy I met on the trail had also quit after 61 days leaving a note in a shelter saying he had gone home to Michigan. People are dropping off the trail like flies at the minute and I can see why. It's tough going and I have to admit I've been having a few wobbles lately, the constant rain, the rocks, the mountains, the pressure on your body and the mental side of things all catch up with you after a while, not to mention the monetary side of things. Last night I had the room to myself which was nice but as Pancake has turned up I said he could stop here to cut costs. I've just been out to finally purchase some new shoes from the outfitters and asked about a shuttle to McAfee Knob, I just need to decide whether to go back up there tomorrow or the next day and whether to slack pack the whole twenty two miles in one day or not. Whilst out I ran into Maniac who I hadn't seen since Damascus aswell so he, I, Pancake, Russ and Cup of Tea are going out for a meal tonight. Try and lift some flagging spirits!
The trail doesn't actually go through a town again until Harper's Ferry which is over three hundred miles away however there are small towns five to ten miles off trail between now and then so I need to formulate some sort of plan over the next twenty four hours. Okay so once again I'm all up to date with my news, time for a shower before heading on out to eat. The last couple of days whilst I haven't been hiking have been dry and in the eighties so I'm hoping that continues but this is Virginia, the place where you get the blues so I'm not counting my chickens! Speak soon.
007.
Licensed to Hike!!
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