Day 115

Started the day out with a nice hike up a hill chatting with JJ. After a bit he started to fall further and further behind. I didn't think much of it since he had wanted to make it to the barn in the morning with me. That change once I got on top of chestnut knob. It was gorgeous. Half bald with a shelter on it. I knew jj was going to stop here based on his new philosophy. The next three miles of hiking was just as nice. Walking along an old orchard with perfect views of the east. I kept hiking cause I really wanted to make it to atkins and the barn for the all you can eat sunday buffet. I had planned to hike to a camp spot rather than a shelter since I had to make the barn by 1, but the last shelter, knot maul shelter, had been given the nick name darth maul shelter so I had to let the geek in me win and camp there.

Day 114

Due to rj needing to goto atkins for a maildrop I knew today would be our last day hiking together. The trail was a typical va trail, nice and easy with few views. At the end if the day I had a surprise. JJ who I has first run into in maine then again in pa was sitting on a bridge by a pretty little stream. I hadn't expected to see him again since he had been doing 25+ when I last saw him. It seems all those long days finally wore him out and he decided that he wasn't getting the full trail experience since he was just blazing past it so fast. We hiked to the jenkins shelter that had appearantly had an aggressive bear during the nobo season but wasn't an issue now. I hung my stuff from a tree just to be safe.

Day 113

My plan was to do an easy 21 to the next shelter but rj was feeling the strain and was talking about stopping early at what was supposed to be a beautiful waterfall with some nice tent sites. The trail was extremely easy and rather boring. It was very well maintained and had some great rhodandrum tunnels but that was it. Rj had such an easy time with the trail as well that he ended up hiking to the shelter as well.

Day 112

We had a nice short day planned. 10 miles south of pearisburg was a must visit hostel in the trail called the Woods Hole Hostel. The hike there was as easy as it sounds with some ok views to boot. The hostel is on a small farm that is known for is local organic delicious meals. You can choose to opt out and rj was planning on doing that to save some cash but after hearing what's for dinner he changed his mind and opted in for dinner and breakfast. The meal was everything it was hyped up to be.

Day 111

We had a nice easy 20 mile hike to Pearisburg lined up for the day and for once it actually was nice and easy. We started out hiking through an old farm medow lined with all kinds of trees, in particular there were some really delicious apple trees.

 After a while we hit another mountain top with a meadow with some great views.

There was even a shelter up on that hill.

The final mile into Pearisburg was by far the worst maintained stretch of the trail. It was completely overgrown and had parts where it was easier to bushwack our way around the trail then to hike on it.
Once we made it into Pearisburg we stopped off at the local mexican restaurant for dinner while waiting to hear back from the town's church hostel. The guide book says it closes in late September and was 3 miles away so we didn't want to walk there to find out it was closed. We ended up not hearing back from them so we just split a room at the local motel. Which actually worked out well since the manager there did our laundry for us for free.

Day 110

The day started out overcast but we got really nice later. Even being overcast there were some good views.

Although I had to climb over a gap that was a bit to much for RJ to get them

A bit later in the day I saw this very delicately balanced tree hanging across the trail.

I have no idea how it managed to land in such a position but it seemed stable enough. 

The day cleared up so we got some really nice views.

Toward the end of the day we headed to a local trail angel's place which you had to ride a zipline across a stream to get to. 

I did it all wrong. It seems there was a clip you were supposed to attach your pack to rather then wear it across like I did.

  Ah well I made it across without falling but I had some close calls.

We decided to hike to the next shelter rather then stay at the trail angels since RJ couldn't find a convenient place to setup his hammock.

Day 109

We woke up to a nice dry day and decided to do what on paper looked like an easy 23 mile day. The guy who makes the guide book needs to add some way to show how good/bad each section of trail is. Our easy 23 miles had us doing 5 miles walking on sideways sloping granite, with nice views

 but really hurts the feet.
Then later in the day we were hiking along some rocky almost scree rock for 4 miles. Which again really hurts the feet and slows us down a lot. Toward the end of the day we got to the Keefer oak, which is the 2nd largest oak on the trail. Here is a picture of the two big oaks, the Dover oak up in NY and the Keefer oak with my pack and poles as a size reference.

 Keefer Oak

Dover Oak

Day 108

After hitting the local outfitters to find RJ a new sleeping bag, his old one was a 40 degree bag and it's been below 40's several times and we have the higher peaks ahead of us. We got back on the trail to another foggy and wet day.

That made going up the "dreaded" dragon's tooth more interesting. The dragon's tooth is a fairly steep scramble over some granite that the NoBos had warned us about as being a dangerous and scary spot that we needed to watch out for. I'll grant them that it was an actual scramble but there were so many foot and hand holds that even in the pouring rain it was easy. Unfortunately due to the weather I didn't take the .1 side trail to see the fog obscuring the dragon's tooth itself or take any pictures of the water climb. Due to the late start, rocky and wet trail and cold weather we decided to call it a day after 12 miles at the first shelter.

Day 107

We woke up to a very foggy day.

Which was really unfortunate since we were going up over McAfee's Knob. McAfee's Knob is one of the prettier and most photographed spots on the trail. Its got this great overlook that makes it look like you are standing on a rock in the sky. Unfortunately due to the fog I missed that overlook. I went to the one right before it and took this fun picture 

Then hiked on cause I didn't want to waste my time looking at fog at the iconic spot. In my defense I didn't know it was the iconic spot at the time. At the bottom of the hill RJ's family was there waiting for us. They took us to a local legendary restaurant called the homeplace which has an AYCE southern style dinner. It was delicious. After that they put us up in a motel room. It was so nice getting a hot shower and clean laundry again. 

Day 106

On to Daleville, civilization and the real sign I was in the south... Bojangles. Bojangles is a chain chicken fast food joint that is only in the south. They make some excellent chicken, biscuits, fries and true southern style sweet tea. On my way into town I ran into this little guy who scurried up a tree when it saw me. I think it's a raccoon but could never get a good enough look to properly identify it.

After pigging out on Bojangles and resupplying RJ and I decided to hike on to the next shelter which was only 10 more miles over flat or medowy terrain.

Day 105

RJ and I decided to do a 21 mile day to set ourselves up for a hike into Daleville tommorrow. There were a lot of really nice views... from the blue ridge parkway. I don't think we had a view all day that wasn't on one of the road overlooks. Either way they were still very pretty. Here are a couple of them

There was a very neat section of the trail right next to the road where you can see the old school construction they had to do to get the blue ridge parkway up and over some of these mountains.

Day 104

From Glasgow I had a 24.8 mile day to hike to catch up with RJ. Luckily getting a hitch out of town was much easier than in. I think that had more to do with the time of day since I caught a ride into and out of town by guys heading to/from work. First things first I got to cross the "longest foot-use only bridge on AT"

with some great views of the James River.

In fact there were great views all day long. I had lunch at the Thunder Ridge Overlook.

Next up was a walk through the Guillotine

Then I got to climb up Apple Orchard mountain where the FAA had some weird tower that was shaped like a giant soccer ball.

At the end of the night I caught back up to RJ so it all worked out timing wise.

Day 103

After the long day yesterday I had a nice easy 10 mile hike to Glasgow where I would resupply and spend the day. It was yet another beautiful day and I got to see an owl chilling in a tree on my way to town.

I had very bad luck getting a ride into town. I got to the road around 12:30 and didn't get a hitch into town until 3:30. It didn't help that there was a minor thunderstorm that rolled through and got me and everything around a little wet. Glasgow was a cool very hiker friendly town, they have a little shelter setup with hot showers that hikers can stay in. Unfortunately I got there on a monday when both the restaurant and convenience store grill were closed. So I got to eat a pair of hotdogs for dinner instead of at an Italian restaurant.

Day 102

Wow I hadn't realized how far back it was since I last updated this. I've had really bad reception lately and have had other priorities when hitting towns. I know excuses excuses. Either way I'll do my best to get caught up now.
RJ had packed enough food for him to hike to Daleville without needing a resupply. I was feeling weaker then him so I had planned on resupplying at Glasgow. In order to make the timing work so I could keep hiking with RJ I decided to do a 21 mile day and head to Glasgow tommorrow while RJ just did a 16 today and an 18 tommorrow. This would just leave me 3 miles behind him after a town stay and resupply. Hiking out of the shelter I noticed something that I had missed the previous night... a hornets nest right next to the trail

 They were still sleeping or frozen since it was freezing again last night. The day turned into a perfect hiking weather and up on Cold mountain it was actually rather nice and I got some really nice views.

RJ and I split up at the next shelter which was a really pretty one right next to a stream. I had planned on only doing a 21 mile day and camping at a reservoir, but when I got there there were signs everywhere saying no camping. So I hiked on to the next shelter.

low battery

haven't been able to post lately due to no computer access in towns and not enough battery out of towns. I'll be in damascus on the 2nd and will update everything then.