We left Pearisburg late, about 10am. Lunch was at Rice Field shelter. The climb was just about as bad as I remembered, seemingly going up forever. At the shelter, the trail leaves the trees to cross a fence onto a grassy field running along the ridge for a half mile. The view stretches out in front. The rest of the day was a roller coaster with lots of rocks. Co-Ed and I got in to the shelter about five thirty. I built a small fire in the fireplace to dry out our clothing. Tucson got in just before dark. We all crashed right after eating supper.
5/25/15 - Laurel Creek shelter, 18.5 miles from Pine Swamp Branch.
I slept hard last night, only woke up once. Usually I'm up two or three times. Still, I was awake at five thirty, so we rolled out at six and were on trail at seven. I knew it would take all day to get here, and it did. There are two brutal climbs in today's segment, the first is at mile three, and it is 1200ft in 2 miles. And it is not switch backed. Then the trail gets rocky and keeps climbing to over 4000ft at Wind Rock. Then it drops 1600ft over 2 miles, to War Spur shelter and a cold creek. I spent an hour there. The trail drops further to 2078ft, then climbs to 3770ft over 2.5 miles. A few switchbacks this time but now the sun is high and the temp is warm. And you've been walking for six hours. So it's only slightly better than brutal. Finally it drops 1000ft over two miles to this shelter. My feet are unhappy to say the least.
Tucson, Co-Ed, a section hiker named Cathy (who works as an investigational drug site monitor), and a couple other thruhikers are here tonight. Tomorrow we do a waterless 13 miles to Niday shelter. Ugh. Co-Ed has contacted the hostel in Catawba, they will pick us up at the road crossing 1.4 miles past the shelter and shuttle us to town for the night. The next day, we'll slack pack from the same road into town. That way we hope to avoid most of the forecast rain, or at least hike knowing our gear is safely dry at the hostel.
5/26/15 - The trail drops from Laurel Creek shelter to the edge of a cow pasture, then through the pasture to the road at Sinking Creek. I noticed a beaver has built a pond next to the trail. As I approached, it swam away and entered its lodge in the middle of the pond.
Across the road, the trail climbs past the Keiffer Oak tree, a 300 year old oak and the largest tree on the southern half of the AT. It's over 18ft in circumference. Cutting thru more pastures, the trail climbs hard to the top of the ridge. Roanoke ATC apparently doesn't believe much in switchbacks. And the humidity was awful.
Once up on the ridge, one finds cairns of native stone on both sides of the trail. Most references state they were made by farmers clearing the land, but I think they were made by trail crews clearing the Trail. There just doesn't seem to be any arable land on that ridge line.
The ridge running continues for about four miles. In some places, it is literally on the spine of the ridge with only feet to spare on either side of the trail. A lot of those times the trail runs over the severely tilted faces of house sized boulders; the familiar white blazes painted directly onto the rock as there is nowhere to place a vertical marker. I was very glad to get through there, especially as clouds were building all day. Sure enough, as we dropped towards Niday shelter, it started to rain. Just a light drizzle, but when we reached the road where we were to meet our shuttle it had turned into a thunderstorm, fortunately on the other side of the ridge back where we had started the day.
Four Pines Hostel is a converted 3-car garage, with a bunch of couches and cots. Very basic, and it could use a good sweeping out, but it has a shower, access to laundry and shuttles to the grocery store/hamburger grill. The little grocery store I tented behind near the post office in 2007 has gone out of business, although Joe, the owner of Four Pines, knows that owner as a good friend. The current grocery store is closer to the trail and where I has dried out at after coming down from the Dragon's Tooth in a rainstorm in '07. Tomorrow we will be shuttled back to the road crossing and we'll slack pack the 16 miles to VA 624 and the hostel. Then, we'll do laundry and get ready for the 20 mile push to Daleville. I plan on a zero in Daleville. Tucson plans the same. Co-Ed has a wedding to go to, but would like to slack pack a day or two north of there if possible.
5/27/15 - We slack packed from VA 621 to 4 Pines Hostel today. Joe Mitchell dropped us off at 7:45 and off we went. Kathy from the previous night apparently made it down to the road by 8am; Neemore got in to the hostel a bit after us and told me he'd seen her. I was a bit worried as Joe had told me he didn't remember her calling last night. Not would've sucked for her if he'd dropped us and left.
The morning was cool although humid, but we made it to the Audie Murphy monument a bit after 9am. He died in a plane crash in 1971 not far from the monument site. In 1991, the AT was rerouted to pass next to the monument. People have left small stones and personal mementoes next to the monument.
We continued on the ridge to the Dragon's Tooth, a rock formation at the end of the ridge. There is no water on the ridge and the trail runs on the very top of the spine, which means a real rock scramble. Add the heat, and what looked like a lot of poison ivy, and the possibility of snakes and it makes for a long day. We finally made the hostel at 4pm. After only a 15.4 mile day. Ugh.
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