The Beginning of Virginia

On the 26th I did 16.1 miles and stayed at Lost Mountain shelter. On the 27th I did 17.3 miles and stayed at Wise shelter. On the 28th I did 20.0 miles and stayed at Trimpi shelter. On the 29th I did 10.6 miles and stayed at Partnership shelter. On the 30th I did 17.9 miles and camped at a stream.

So things are finally starting to bloom. This photo amuses my since it is almost identical to one taken a few weeks ago except then the white ground cover was snow and now it is little mountain flowers. It changes the whole atmosphere of the woods.

Once again there were ponies that were quite friendly. This time instead of interacting with them on the the trail the herd decided to hang out with us at the shelter. I think it was intentional since right around dinner time 12 or so suddenly showed up and were rather incistent on food. Unfortunately for ponies thru hikers value our food extremely highly. They moved off after a while but showed up just as some people started cooking breakfast. Silly ponies.

The last few days have been less then ideal weather but not nearly as bad as I had expected. The weather report showed thunderstorms Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Over the course of those days I experienced thunderstorms at some point but most of the day was just overcast. I have been able to keep my stuff dry mainly with the use of nice shelters like the one below to duck out of the worst weather. I chatted with someone who did the PCT last year and is out here this year and they are not impressed with east coast weather. Apparently he had two days of rain during the 1700 miles of trail in California and the air was dry. Out here it rains at least a little most nights and even when it doesn't it is humid enough that your skin is kind of sticky. Needless to say, he is wondering why people live in this weather. 

Even though the mountains of Virginia are less impressive the North Carolina there is more history on the trail. This is an old school house that is now part of a museum that is open to hikers. The list of punishments and rules for the teachers.

Well Virginia is going smoothly so far. I haven't decided if I am definitely going to Trail Days this year but I think I will. It should be fun. I don't know quite yet how I am going to be getting back down to Danascus but a couple hundred mile hitch might be the solution. It's only two weeks away now.