Pictures - Daleville to Reservoir Road

FAA tower on Apple Orchard Mountain

The Guillotine 

Tucson crossing the James River

Looking back towards Apple Orchard Mountain

Pedlar River bridge at Reservoir Road

Glasgow to Three Springs Hostel

6/3/15 - Three Springs Hostel

  It started raining around seven last night, and it didn't stop until shortly before I got to Reservoir Road, at 3:30.  Even then the skies have remained cloudy to foggy, and it occasionally drips.

Co-Ed has gone home for a friend's wedding on Sunday.  Tucson decided not to hike out of Glasgow, but go to the emergency room to have his ankle examined.  It was red, swollen and he could not fully flex it this morning.  That ankle was damaged yet as ago and has screws in it.  Hope he's ok, neither of us has cell coverage.

Gary Serra shuttled us into Glasgow last night, his wife Susan shuttled me out this morning. The hike up wasn't as bad as I remembered, but the rain was nasty.  Of course going uphill I was wet from sweat and my glasses were fogged over.  I got passed by hiker The Hacker, the oldest son of A Simple Man and his wife Chocolate, of the Family.  They are all out thruhiking, except for Hacker and one sister as they are section hiking Bland to Buena Vista before going back to school.  Funny thing, The Hacker is going to school at TSTU Waco!

I made the Pedlar River bridge earlier than I expected, and managed to make a call to Oma.  She picked me up at 4:30 and we were at her hostel by five.  I'm really beat up physically and mentally depressed over the continued rain and now cold.  As well as losing a couple hiking friends I've had since before the Smokies.  

Daleville to Glasgow

6/1/15 - Leaving Daleville

  We got shuttled back to Bearwallow Gap this morning to start heading to Glasgow.  The trail climbs out of the gap, and doesn't seem to stop, although it does drop steeply to Jennings Creek after the first mile or so.  But after the creek, it climbs.  And climbs.? And climbs. Without switchbacks, without rest areas.  Brutal.  Add today's humidity and temp, and it was awful.  Even Blackout called it bad, and said he had to stop every hundred feet or so to rest.

Tick, Pocahontas, Rock Steady, Right Click and Dash were here eating when I arrived after Tucson.  They all moved on to the next shelter.  Deacon showed up before Co-Ed, so that leaves four in the shelter tonight.  It rained hard for about twenty minutes this afternoon, only Co-Ed was in it. We're due the same weather tomorrow, so I expect to get wet before I finish the twenty miles to the James River. And Wednesday is supposed to be all rain.

6/2/15 - Cornelius Creek shelter to the James River.

It rained more later last night. And we woke up to the usual mountain fog. It's been gloomy all day, and damp, but not raining hard.  Of course, I'm wet.  The combination of rain and sweat is disgusting.  My glasses are fogged, the trail is slippery, and it looks like the town pavilion will be full.  Which means I'll have a wet tent too tomorrow.  Joy.

Fortunately, we made the river by five, Gary Serra shuttled us to the town shelter in Glasgow, and the shelter was still open.  So I have a nice dry bunk.  And, there's a propane fired shower! So I'm clean, and I've 'laundered' my hiking clothes.  They'll still be damp tomorrow, but not greasy.

We did 19.9 miles today.  We started at 6:30, and Tucson and I got to the US501 parking lot at 5pm.  Tomorrow we'll have a horrid 2700 foot climb out of the river basin.  And it will be raining. Joy.

Big Trouble in Daleville

5/29/15 - Zero one in Dalesville.

  I woke up at 4:30 this morning sore and anxious about being too tired to plan last night and not finding much information online about the small towns up ahead.  I have hit a mental and physical wall.  I want to go home.  This section from Dalesville to Waynesboro was difficult last time, and it appears to have gotten worse over the years.  I'm not having fun, I don't want to be camping out in the expected days of rain forecasted.  I need time to plan and make arrangements!  I can't resupply without knowing how much to buy.  And the local outfitter clerk is a moron:  "Do you have a copy of AWOL's rail guide?"  Am I walking the Trail you idiot!?  Screw this, I'm going home. I quit.

4:00pmu same day.

   Tucson said earlier he would not be hiking tomorrow, he needs another zero day.  He feels he has spent the day running around doing trail chores instead of resting.  Co-Ed reluctantly admitted his knee is bothering him but insists that he has to be in a town on the 3rd to rent a car.  I found a hostel up by Buena Vista that looks good but only accepts six people per day as they are still finishing infrastructure and permitting for their bunkhouse.  After spending a couple hours brainstorming and crunching numbers (not easy to do on a phone, I'd've been faster with a laptop), I found a workable plan that allows us to do the segment in 8 days but resupply every 3 days.  And the weather forecast is improved slightly.  Tucson and Co-Ed bought into my plan, and the hostel can accommodate us.  The local outfitter says he can shuttle us for a slackpack day.  

So, I have a plan, I have a real day of rest, Tucson will get his rest day, Co-Ed will be on a blacktop road on the 3rd (and probably well before 4pm), and we are only 295 miles from Harpers Ferry, and less than a mile and a half from finishing ⅓ of the trail. I will stay on my hike.  

Catawba to Daleville

5/28/15 - Catawba to Dalesville

  We slack packed forward to Dalesville today.  Eddie at 4-Pines hostel dropped us of at the trailhead at 7:15, and carried our gear to the Howard Johnson hotel.  He grumbled quite a bit last night, since I was insistent on leaving at 7am.  He wanted to leave at at least eight.  I told him I was familiar with the route's terrain, that we hiked a steady 2mph pace and that we would be stopping for pictures at McAfee Knob. Grumble, grumble.

I was told after getting started that my SPOT wasn't blinking; I'd forgotten to turn it on. Fixed that and we took off uphill.  The trail is good, the Knob is a popular spot and do the trail has been routed and groomed for day hikers.

We had a good time at the Knob; the family of thruhikers (Chocolate and her children) were there.  Right Click and his daughter showed up.  One of the Family's sons had a length of climbing rope and was tying himself to a tree so he could edge out over the cliff, Chocolate was worried as any mother would be.  Crazy kid......

The trail runs right along the edge of the cliff off and on all day.  It's rocky spine in some places, bouldering in others, flat trail in a few spots.  And the ridge curves around the town of Daleville, teasing hikers with their destination all afternoon.  And there are only two or three locations for water.  My feet were seriously aching when I got to the road at 5:30pm.  Snail and Co-Ed got to the HoJo hotel before I did and wanted to immediately go eat.  I was exhausted and told them I wanted a shower first.  I caught up to them at a BBQ place with SlowRide.  Tucson came in a half hour later and we had a good dinner.  We decided to zero Friday; Tucson thinks he'll need two days off trail.  Co-Ed wants to make miles tomorrow as he has to leave June 3 for a wedding.  I need to plan how to get to Waynesboro, there is very little town support between here and there.

Pictures - Pearisburg to Catawba

U

Just past Rice Field Shelter, on Peter's Mountain,

NW of Pearisburg, VA

View of Peterstown, WV from near Rice Field Shelter

Trail running north along WV-VA border

Morning crossing pasture near Huffman, VA

Keffer Oak, the largest oak tree on the southern AT.

Over 300 years old, more than 18 feet around

Audie Murphy memorial

Co-Ed at the Dragon's Tooth

Tucson

Binjali

Sign on North side of Dragon's Tooth, there was NOT 

a similar sign on the South side!

700 miles down!

4 Pines Hostel, Catawba

Pearisburg to Catawba

5/24/15 - Pine Swamp Branch shelter, when I last saw it in 2007, had a large tree fallen right in the middle of the roof, and was nearly collapsed.  We ended up tenting nearby.  This year, the roof is in good shape so we grabbed spots inside.  The shelter is a Trimpi model, made of stone with a fireplace centered on the back wall with sleeping platforms on the two side walls.

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.