Rain rain and more rain

Rest days are great however, when you leave town you end up in a hiker bubble (high concentration on hikers). Leaving Damascus was no different. The first night out there were nine hikers, in addition to our group of seven, who stayed at the same campsite. To help us get away from the bubble our group pushed on and completed twenty miles. It was an interesting day as the trail took us through Grayson highland park. The park is home to a large number of wild horses and we were actually fortunate enough to get close enough to pet them! I offered ten dollars to anyone who would ride one but sadly no one took me up on my offer. Nova did however take the prize, sighting eight horses! The day ended with more trail magic consisting of hotdogs and pop...yum!

Trail magic always seems to stop us in our tracks so we (sleeping beauty, nova, puddin, patty cakes, night rider, spanky, and etch-a-sletch) decided to pitch our tents there for the night. That night the wind gusted and the rain fell. Unfortunately, night rider and sleeping beauty both had rain get into their tarp tents and soaked all of their stuff. As a result, they both high tailed it to the next road so that they could hitchhike into town and dry off. I waited a couple of hours to see if the rain would die off (which it never did) and then worked up the courage to brave the elements.
I managed to put in twenty miles that day and was happy to see nova, puddin and patty cakes come up the trail and join me for the night.

I left the group to head into Marion, VA to make some phone calls and pick up a package. To my surprise, and the groups, I was able to catch back up that day putting in another 14miles after 2:30. The terrain in VA is a little more flat and we often find ourselves hiking through farmers fields (with cows in the field). It's a welcome change in scenery.

For the past four days we've had rain every day! Yesterday I arrived in Pearisburg after hiking, sometimes calf deep, through mud, overflowing streams and low lying branches. It was definitely type two fun. Sadly, I am regretting my decision to forgo rain pants. I fully expected the temperatures to be much warmer by now and with all this rain I am officially freezing my butt off. Hopefully, the sun will come out and the rain will disappear....right...the forecast for the next two days is...RAIN! :-)

Well...I am back on the trail this morning. I hope everyone is doing well back home.

Total mileage: 630
Total days: 42

Ps - the picture is what your feet will look like after 550miles. Enjoy! :-)

Rest Day(s)

I spent 2.5 days in Demascus. It was nice to be off of my feet but I was ready to get back on the trail. Everyone thought i was crazy because on the last day in town I borrowed a bike and went for a hour long ride. I guess people aren't use to my craziness :). The bike ride was exactly what I needed. It was amazing to move that fast. After averaging approx 2.5mph for the last month my senses were on overload as I sprinted along the creeper trail laughing like a little kid.

After struggling with my 40lb pack coming out of Hot Springs I elected to send half of my food ahead to another town. This time I left town with only 25lbs on my back. I am going to require huge amounts of personal control so that I don't bust out 25+mile days with such a light pack. I guess time will tell.

Spring is starting to reach the higher elevations now and it is quite interesting to watch the world morph into a new season. The birds are more active and the smells from the blosums are quite strong. Coming into town is also an interesting experience as all of my senses are heightened. The noise from cars and other machinery, the smell of fresh cut grass, and speed at which vehicles rush by are all much more noticable. It is going to be interesting returning to a large city after sending another 4 months living like a nomad in the American woods.

Day 31 April 26

This morning I woke feeling fully rested. It is a rare occurrence for me to wake and be up and ready to take on the world. However, this morning I woke at 6:30 and I had my bag packed, breakfast ate and was on the trail by 6:50. The hiking came easy for me today and I found myself zipping along at 3+mph. The trail followed a "ridge" today with views of watauga lake for the majority of the day. It was quite beautiful. The trail is also quite quiet now. Today I only saw six other people while hiking. I figured this had a lot to do with me starting so early so I took a mid day siesta and then stopped to make a hot lunch and still no one caught up to me. It was actually quite nice to have the trail to myself. That evening I stopped after 25miles at double spring shelter. There six other hikers caught up to me, however, none of them were anyone I knew.

Rain is in the forecast so I think I will try to make my way into Damascus tomorrow.

Day 29 April 24

After drying out our gear we decided to take an easy day. This proved to be an excellent decision. Today the trail took us by three major waterfalls. They were absolutely beautiful and we all took full advantage of mother natures natural shower. It had been almost ten days since any of us had showered so off we went with the camp soap and bandanas in hand. The water took your breath away but man it was extremely refreshing to get some of the grime off and a lot of fun to splash around in the water.
We also crossed another milestone today. We have now hiked 408miles!!! Only 1777 more to go :)

Day 28 April 23

Today we (Nova, Sleeping beauty, puddin, Patty cakes and Eddy) officially crossed into Tennessee for the last time. For the last ~100miles the tail has travelled back and forth between the North Carolina and the Tennessee border. Even though we've been crossing back and forth between the two states for quite some time it was a sense of accomplishment to finally see the official sign.
The trail can run very close to houses and private property. Someone who had a barn .3 of a mile off the trail donated it to the ATC. As a result it was converted into a shelter. The shelter was probably the most unique shelter I've seen yet and very spacious compared to some of the other 6man shelters. It also came with a great view. We attempted to take a group photo of us jumping off of the picnic table. Sadly the force of us all jumping broke the leg off the picnic table but it resulted in the most hilarious photo.
Later in the day we had a major road crossing. Nova and I had been talking about how great it would be to get trail magic today. Well we hit the jackpot. There was a couple there that had planned on hiking the AT and then changed their mind. As a result they were giving away about $800 worth of food and gear. They had dried cranberries, blueberries, pomegranates, cherries, oranges, bananas, cucumbers, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, toilet paper, bandanas, pack covers, cliff bars, mr noddles, cup of soup, stove top stuffing, Mac and cheese, pop tarts, crackers, avocados, melons, cantaloupe, summer sausage, sausage bites, peanut butter, emergen-C, coronation instant breakfasts, the list goes on. BUT the craziest part was.... They were trappers by trade and they had BEAVER. Yes, my fellow Canadians I ate our national animal. It was quite tasty. They prepared it in a similar fashion to pulled pork. Delish. As a result of us gorging ourselves and spending 2hours at the road crossing we only hiked an additional 2miles past the road.
That night we decided to cowboy camp (sleep under the stars). This ended up being a bad decision. come morning we were absolutely soaked. Word of advice do not cowboy camp in a grassy area you will end up covered in dew. The picture is us drying out our stuff the next day. Enjoy!

Day 27 April 22

Yesterday while hiking I passed two day hikers. They weren't moving the swiftest but they weren't overly slow either. Well last night around 9:30pm they stumbled through our campsite. Cold from the wind and near freezing temperatures they stopped for a moment and heated themselves by our fire. One of the other hikers gave them his headlamp as they didn't have one and they went about their way (I was in my tent while all of this was taking place). Then around 11pm I thought we were under attack as two four wheelers came blasting into our campsite. I would like to remind everyone that the appalachian trail is a foot trail only, no motorized vehicles or bikes allowed. So now you should be able to understand how terrifying and confusing it would be to sleepily process the idea of having two loud and aggressively driven machines came raging toward your 2mm thick tent. Needless to say I did not get out of my tent. It turns out the the two day hikers were over due and someone had called search and rescue, hence the four wheelers. One of the thru hikers was still up and told search and rescue that the day hikers hiked by about an hour ago and continued on northbound. With the new information in hand search and rescue was off in a flash, disappearing just as quickly as they had appeared. But the funniest thing of all was that one of the thru hikers slept through the entire thing!
The rest of the day ended up being great. I secretly had a goal of hiking 25miles; however, Sleeping Beauty, Puddin and Patty cakes were feeling quite rough and were struggling (mentally and physically). As a result, we ended up taking a 2.5hr siesta. The siesta was amazing. I laid in the sun, soaked up the heat, dozed off and on, and read my book. Three o'clock rolled around and Nova caught up to us so the group of us set off together toward the next shelter. We reached Roan High Knob shelter by six o'clock but decided to continue on as it was bloody cold there. This shelter is actually the highest shelter on the trail at 6194ft. We finally stopped and camped in a field for the night making our mileage 19miles. It was such a great day filled with such a feeling of contentment.

Day 26 April 21

This morning I had a leisurely start to my day. I got out of my tent around 7:30am but didn't hit the trail until 9:30. It was nice to sleep in and lay around waiting for the sun to dry my tent. Last night was an exciting night as it was my first night in 25days where I didn't have to wake up and blow up my thermarest. There really isn't any other way to describe it except for fantastic!!!!! I had such a great night sleep. One that was much needed. Puddin, Patty cakes and I all started out together. Before we left we all weighed our packs Patty cakes was 37lbs, puddin's was 32 and mine was down to 33. It is amazing how 7 pounds can make such a difference. Shortly after being on the trail we ran into Frenchie (another Canadian) and the Germans who were "stealth" camping in the woods outside of the town limits. Frenchie also fell ill to the virus and as a result has lost 15lbs. Sadly, he is currently contemplating leaving the trail and heading home. I hope he is feeling better and we all gave him air hugs (a hug from afar to avoid contact) before heading down the trail.
On more positive note the terrain was quite relaxed today and we were able to cover ~17.5miles with relative ease. We were even able to enjoy a two hour hiatus on top of a bald called beauty spot gap. Here Sleeping beauty was able to catch up to us after spending the night with his parents. And he told tales of warm showers, hot tub soaks, and scrumptious meals...ah to have a real meal. Unfortunately Nova got a late start and we didn't see her again after leaving the hostel. Hopefully she'll catch up further down the trail.