6/12: Quick 6 miles on easy ground to get to Trent’s Grocery for cereal breakfast. Met SuperBubba and Sherlock on a cool footbridge. Ate too many Frosty Flakes and felt icky afterwards. Easy walk to Woods Hole Hostel (after a wrong turn on an unmarked forest road meaning about 1.5 bonus miles). Really cool log cabin and bunk house.
Woods Hole Hostel. Go there. Immediately.
Just in time for burrito and salad and homemade bread dinner. SOOOO good. Caught up with Birch, new folks-Josiah and Lauren, Chuck Wagon and Chowhound (a pastry chef for King Arthur flour in Wisconsin). Melanie got the name Starry Eyes from the proprietor Neville. Met Old Spice, Magic Mix, Holy Cow, Neard, all there too. Where’s Indy and Snags? Great night sleep in bunkhouse.
6/13: Outhouse is closed:( Solar shower is HOT! Breakfast was extra yummy! Sweet rice with yogurt and jam, frittata and bread and jam. Folks slack packed in 11mi to Pearisburg and I rode with a few people and Neville into town. Got hotel room to share, went to PO-nice box from Breeze, Hot Mess, Freefall and the Belchigators with food, town gown and a little Disney backpack for So Far to ultralight with;) Chinese buffet (ick) then TV. Fire Tower made it to town! He brought news of Caver leaving the trail!! We’re all shocked and bummed to hear thatL Fire Tower wants to aqua blaze through Shenandoah National Park on a river in a canoe…trying to get people to join him. I’m tempted. So Far will walk either way. Quick stop at grocery, then bed.
6/14: Up early then out for 23 mile day. So Far stayed behind to mail at PO and catch up with me today. Now it’s the end of the day, I’m 19miles from Pearisburg with Ponyboy, Francois Dillenger and Cliff but no So FarL
So Far finally rolled in at 7p…he got held up in town and then the way to the trail was confusing (I had the trail guide) and he got lostL We’re staying here tonight. Going to make for a long day tomorrow.
6/15: Up at 6, out by 7. Planning a lonnnngggg day: 31 miles. Probably won’t happen as we’re moving sorta slow. Probably get in after dark. Hard day-low morale. Feeling tired and worn out. Finally made it to just before Sarver’s Gap, 25.5 miles in at 10pm on a crummy rocky tentsite.
6/16: Up at 4am, out by 4:30. Felt awful in the am. Tired and demoralized. Scot convinced me that breakfast and a nap would help…it did. Scot put all his stuff in my pack and carried it ALL DAY LONG cuz he’s the sweetest. Walked a little farther to a road and had our first real trail magic-a nice lady named Smoky Scout with donuts, coke, chips, yogurt. 2 donuts, a yogurt, chips, and a Mountain Dew later I felt good. A little while later we met another older couple who gave us fruit and Cokes, and took our picture. That helped too. We hiked over Dragon’s Tooth…a rocky mountain that was more rock climbing than hiking…so hard and took forever! I don’t know how Scot did it with that huge pack (we call it Voltron when we put our packs together). Finally made it 23 miles to an early road and hitched in to the Homeplace Restaurant for BBQ all you can eat (AYCE). It was OK, not great but a guy came and talked to us about the trail, then paid for dinner! He even drove me back to the trail with Voltron so I could walk a mile in to the 1st shelter. Scot went back to the road we hitched out at and hiked the 7 miles to the shelter and got in around 11:15p. On my way to the shelter I saw my first bear. It ran away. Talked to Mel who claims the bear ran cuz I’m so intimidating…musta known my name is Jaws and I eat bears for breakfast.
6/17: Felt awful in the morning. Flu-like sick. Finally got up and out at 10:30a. Made it 1 mile to the next shelter for breakfast and found Ponyboy! Decided on a very short day to Lamberts Meadow-9miles. Met a girl on the trail who had lost her brother and mom while hiking and was scared. We sat with her until her brother caught up and all was well. Nice chance to sit and eat candy too.
Our intrepid voyageurs on McAffee Knob
Walked up to McAffee Knob and met El Perro Noche (Perro for short). Went to bed at 7:30p.
6/18: Felt much better in the am. No more flu symptoms, just vaguely tired. Hiked 9 miles into Daleville for some mediocre BBQ at Three Little Pigs and a resupply at the Kroger with Perro. Met Magic Mix and Birch on the way out of town. They probably won’t aquablaze because of Sir (the kitty) but they say a bunch of people are planning on it. Perro is probably in for it too. Hiked out at 3:30, 3.7 miles to the 1st shelter out of town. Started raining right away with big thunder. Got in around 6 and then it stopped raining and was sunny. Good dinner and chat then bed. Moses, Perro, Lando, Greenlight and Spice Boy here too.
6/19: 6am up, 7a out. Really digging the dry milk and cereal I got in Daleville for breakfast. Trying not to eat toooo many bran flakes. Felt pretty good today moving well in am. SoF and Perro are walking with me and that’s helpful. Also got NPR on the radio! (Thanks Patch for the MP3 player…it’s been a lifesaver!). 23 miles in to Jennings Creek and a swimming hole. I didn’t swim but soaked my feet and washed all of our gross socks. Not doing laundry or taking a shower in Daleville makes us stinky now. Wishing I had a clean shirt to switch out. Dinner and chat with Perro. Lando and Greenlight made it down here too-Late-9ish. 20ish miles tomorrow of lots of climbing-but some south bounders (SoBoers) said it was nice trail and switchbacks so fingers crossed that we can make up the rest of the 6 miles we missed yesterday because of the rain.
Amazing what you find kicking around in the woods.
6/20: Really bad rainstorm last night. Tent held up pretty well until huge deluge. Woke up a lot to check seams-all fine. Gets a little saggy when wet. Up and out around 8a with Perro. 20 miles-felt okay but tired. Met a hiker named AYCE and Cobbler Gobbler. Stopped at shelter to dry out tent etc and Perro went on ahead with AYCE and Cobbler. Stayed at Marble Hill Campsite. Natty Bird Dog caught us at dusk but decided to keep going a little farther.
6/21: Happy Hike Naked Day! 19 miles to just past Punchbowl shelter. Met Lost at road who knows Toaster and Goodfoot (from Portland, we went to a housewarming at their house a while ago). Lost is heading home with a bum legL Natty passed us nekkid and Scot decided to run a mile in the nudey. I chose to abstain from the nekkid. Really hot today with lots of climbing. Hot lunch was nice.
If you’d like to see all the pictures from this section on Facebook, click here:
Maine or Bust 
Leave a comment