Tragedy Strikes

On the 7th we did 2 more miles out of Atkins and camped along a stream at Davis Hollow. On the 8th we did 15.3 miles to a campsite on Lick Creek. On the 9th we 5.7 miles to Chestnut Knob Shelter and stopped there to get out of the rain. On the 10th we left late waiting for the rain to stop but did 10 miles to Jenkins Shelter. On the 11th we did 14.8 miles and camped just past Helveys Mill Shelter. On the 12th we went to Trents Grocery for some food but still did 17.2 miles and camped at Dismal Falls. On the 13th we zeroed at Dismal Falls since it was a nice spot and we thought we would have to zero in Pearisburg. On the 14th we did 12.2 miles to Woods Hole Hostel, the best hostel yet! On the 15th we did 10.4 miles into Pearisburg.

Three days ago, I ran out of body glide! It almost made me cry a bit. I had to steel myself for the following days but I have persevered and made it to town. Hopefully such a terrible thing never happens again.

The only thing I have to add about Atkins from my last update is that resupplying from a gas station is far from ideal. To see what it's like, go to your local Shell or Exxon station and try and buy food for 5 days. Then remember that you eat 4000 calories every day. The pile of food you are forced to buy is disgusting! I did pass on the jar of pickled pigs feet; maybe that would have made it better.

The day after Atkins was the day of cows and fence stiles. It felt like every .5 mile had a fence stile. For people that don't know what a fence stile is, it is basically two ladders leaning against each other over a fence (photo of UV navigating one below).

The next day it rained forever. Our stuff was wet and soaked so when we got to Chestnut Knob Shelter and it was a 4-walled stone house with a door we decided to wait out the rain. It worked rather well; things didn't dry out completely, but nothing got more wet. The following day we waited for the rain to stop, which happened in the afternoon, and then pushed on to the next shelter.

The next day was boring. The day after involved real food! I had eaten basically all of the junk food I had bought in Atkins so it was time to head to Trent's Grocery and buy enough food for the short trek into Pearisburg. Unfortunately, it turns out that Trent's is also just a gas station that happens to serve a little bit of food. So I bought a burger and loaded up on more Little Debbie's and hiked onward. I resisted the large selection of turkey calls and bait that were for sale. We found a great campsite at Dismal Falls a few miles past Trent's. It was so nice that we decided to spend another day there with the theory that finding a ride back to Damascus was going to be easiest from Pearisburg and that didn't need to happen until the 17th or 18th. The downside of this plan was that it decided to rain excessively that afternoon and night.

After waking up sleeping in a nice 1.5 inch deep puddle, we had to move on. It is quite amazing how much heavier everything is when it is completely saturated with water. Getting from Dismal Falls to Woods Hole Hostel functionally involves hiking up stream. Eventually, wet and tired, we got to the hostel.

Woods Hole Hostel is amazing, pure and simple. It is a farm that serves as a hiker hostel and a retreat for people that want to get away (photo of bunkhouse below). They served dinner and breakfast and it was potentially the best food I have had yet on the trail. The dinner was salad, from their garden, and burritos that you assembled yourself with homemade tortillas followed by Amish made blackberry ice cream. For breakfast we had creme brûlée French toast with scrambled eggs and fresh baked bread. It was hard to leave in the morning; many people didn't resist the urge to stay and spent at least one day there.

Shortly after leaving Woods Hole, I came across a large puddle/stream in the trail due to the rain. Since my feet were still dry and I think my inner child needed some play time, I spent twenty minutes using leaves and sticks and redirecting the water flow while draining the puddle (photo below). Needless to say, UV found this activity quite amusing when she caught up to me. This day also had the best blooming rhododendron tunnel yet (photo below).

Once we hit Pearisburg, I got my mail boxes and we called the hostel. For some unknown reason, the hostel doesn't open until May 22nd, which is outrageous! Rendezvous Inn it is, even though it is a bit more expensive. Dinner consisted of all-you-can-eat Chinese, followed by a half gallon of mint chip ice cream. At the Chinese place, we got the oddest/meanest fortunes in our cookies ever. Mine said "My reality check just bounced." I'm still unsure what exactly it is trying to imply. UV's was just plan mean. It read, "You can count your friends on one hand." I couldn't help but laugh as she pouted.

We found out that UV's faux family is coming to Trail Days and is going to give us a ride to and from the event. This makes things much simpler than trying to find a ride and/or hitch a ride back to Damascus. I feel like this post was a bit rushed, but I have to get back to the trail.

Other photos not yet mentioned: a view of Pearisburg before we came down out of the mountains, and a photo of a white blaze on an underpass so Debra knows how we cross highways.