This is last nights shelter at 7am, not much brighter than last nights pic (from all the rain this morning)

The rhododendron are peaking in some areas.

We cross the Blue Ridge Parkway numerous times over the next 100 miles. Unfortunately, the views were obscured today.

Hiking below an old Parkway retaining wall

More obscured views.

Hiking through the rhododendron.

Haunted forest scene

Home for the night, the two story Bryant Ridge shelter. It rained on and off most of the day, but warmer than last time (~55 degrees)

So the difference in mileage most days between the AT mile markers and my actual distance is from hiking off trail (1/3 mile to a shelter etc). Today’s difference is from what every thru hiker dreads…hiking the wrong direction. There is about 50yds of side trail to the shelter. When I arrived last night I was a bit distracted, And when I left this morning in the rain I was fiddling with some rain gear. Even though I consciously looked at the trail and the white blazes I chose the wrong direction and it was 1/2 a mile later at a creek that looked familiar thy I realized my mistake 😦 So, one mile and 20 minutes later I was back at the shelter finally starting my northward progress… again!

My host cats like pawing at the backpack cords.

Organizing my resupply at Kroger under the perennials.

Nothing like playing frogger across 4 lanes of traffic. At least they put up a sign warning hikers are coming 🙂

I love the 20′ mowed strip of grass the trail sits in the middle of.

Babbling brook

The Wilson Creek Shelter was home for the night (has cell phone signal too)

Even with a 2pm departure from town I was able to get 11 miles in by 6:45.

We got off to an early start this morning (5:45am) because we had a big day to Daleville and the offer of some home comforts of home from a friends sister (Cynthia)

The cows were surprised to see us so early.
Since it was beautiful Sunday (a cold wind though) Mcafee Knob near Roanoke was hopping.

This shot I took was better than the one that someone else took of me standing on the Knob.

Hard to believe we are just 10 miles from Roanoke, VA.

These are some nice folks we met who moved here recently from Silicon Valley.

Little Kiss on Tinker Cliffs (like Mcafee knob but no people).

The Hollis reservoir from the final descent to Daleville. We arrived in town around 6pm
Our great hosts for the night, Cynthia and Brian!
Hot showers, laundry, real beds and lots of food…what could be better?

…a sewing machine to mend my gators 🙂

It was a late night chatting as well as catching up on emails, journals and blogs.

I started off a fantastic morning with an incredible ridge walk (much like the ridge you can see across the valley)

Isn’t the Gulf of Mexico part of the Atlantic?

A bumble bee 🙂

The rain showers arrive…but nothing the umbrella can’t handle

The view from the Dragons Tooth (near Roanoke)

The actual tooth…modeled by some nice kids I met from Blacksburg who are prepping for their first big Backpack trip.

Menacing clouds before the more rain showers arrived just before the sketchiest descent of the the whole trip (forgot to take pics). It was a big rock scramble that was nice and slick.

The Rainbow after the storm

The rhododendrons are starting to peak in some areas. We will be paralleling the Blue Ridge Parkway in a couple days which is know for their rhododendron.

Home for the night…yes, a bit odd but it came highly recommended (seriously). It’s the Four Pines Hostel (donations appreciated). It’s just what it looks like…a giant 6-car garage on a farm (1/2 mile from the trail), but with laundry, showers snacks and all sorts of other hiker comforts.

There were about a dozen folks staying on various couches and cots.

…even Oakley the 2yr old Golden got his own couch.

Tomorrow is a big day to Daleville (26mi?). Along the way is Macafee Knob, a very well known attraction in this area as well as several other good view points. It’s supposed to be a clear sunny day too!

More trail wisdom:
–The AT don’t care
(as in the trail doesn’t care how you feel or how tired you are, etc. it’s just going to beat you up regardless)

-If the Trail was easy it would be your mom
(written on a Shelter ceiling)

The family friendly version of that would be:
-If the AT were flat we’d be walking through Kansas

Packing up after a rainy night taking cover under the Bailey Gap shelter. The shelter was surprisingly empty…most hikers are off trail in Damascus for Trail Days. It should be pretty quiet out here until Monday.

All the rain last night turned the trail into a muddy river…the first couple miles were especially slick with lots of moss covered rocks.

Up in the clouds and fog this morning…

but by the afternoon it was a beautiful day.

Walking through the Virginia farmland is a nice way to change up the day.

Wildflowers are starting to bloom.

The Keefer Oak is the oldest oak on the AT, and it’s huge!

A stiff climb at the end of a long day got us up onto the ridge with great views back toward the farmland.

Home for the night is the Sarver Hollow shelter. Only two other folks showed up (trail days effect plus it’s 1/2 mile off trail down a steep hill).

Always a bit alarming to see a sign like this…then we passed a landfill !

Hard to believe the weather was completely socked 2 hours before when we left Pearisburg this morning (1/2 mile visibility).

View from inside the Rice Field shelter where we stopped for a break / snack.

Leaving the shelter over the cattle stile. One of the best settings for a shelter I’ve seen so far!

We haven’t officially entered West Virginia (~400 more miles), but we hiked along the border much of the morning.

The view from the ridge looking into West Virginia

Some brief Rain showers came in the late afternoon. This is the bridge over Stoney Creek

LK sporting his poncho and Quasi-Moto look.

We saw a lot of folks slack packing southbound today as people are getting ready to head to Damascus for trail days (along with 25,000 others). The benefit to this is that there was only one other person at the shelter tonight 🙂 Time for bed…good night!

Good bye to Woods Hole…thanks for protecting me from the crazy rain storm last night (it was like a fire hose). I had a well earned massage before my departure to help my back and body.

A pano from the Blue Ridge

A Blue Ridge Selfie

A hitch into the town of Pearisburg to resupply…he even offered to loan me his car for the next two days if I needed it !

“Little Kiss” (his last name is Bucino…Italian for little kiss) hanging out at our palace for the night. I know what you are thinking…”indoors two nights in a row!” A practical solution to get all our town chores done efficiently, plus a reward for 155 miles completed in the previous 7 days.
Our “Holiday Lodge” across from the Food Lion…life could not be easier!

LK gave himself a haircut with some kids craft-scissors and a razor (look at his head in mirror). I recommended he wear a hat whenever hitching a ride.

The best part of my resupply box, Andrea’s Bug Juice art 🙂

Today started with some morning Trail Magic. The shelter we stayed near last night had a notice that the local church has a “Hiker Feed” Monday mornings from 9-12 and they will pick us up at the road crossing 5 miles down trail. Needless to say we were there waiting and ready by 8:30. Five minutes later this car came by and whisked us 3 miles down the raid to the church.

This is Tough Love and Little Kiss who I’ve been leap frogging and hiking with since Hot Springs. We are loaded up to go to the church. Little Kiss (on right) actually stayed at the same lodge as me the night I flew to Atlanta and started hiking the same day. He’s almost 65 and cranks out some big miles!

Hikers Feeding in the church basement.

Everyone’s packs lined up outside the church (near Bastian, VA).

The ride back to the trailhead.

The rolling Blue Ridge Mountains

Trail Magic #2 today. Two thru hikers from last year who live in Mass were returning the favor.

An interesting sign…These nice folks provide the barrel for hikers to get rid of their trash.

We passed mile 600 today !

This is a cool footbridge I crossed over a river this morning.

This was posted on a shelter I stopped at for breakfast around 8am. A preemptive strike…but word on the trail is the guy who wrote the sign snores and doesn’t know it !

This is the Chestnut Ridge Shelter on top of a 2000′ climb. A great lunch spot out of the wind (fully enclosed). I think high winds are fairly regular…the roof was being held onto the structure with thick metal cables all the way around.

Unfortunately, it was either hazy or treed-in most of the day obscuring the views…so not too many pics today.

I thought I’d take some time to explain my typical routine:

Generally, I wake up ~6am (when sun comes up now) and lay in my sleeping bag until 6:15-6:20. Then I get all my gear packed up and organized leaving snacks and lunch food accessible for the day. Rain jacket stays on the outside of the pack for quick access in case of rain or wind (although I just use my umbrella for most rain). I have one liter of water filtered the night before with some bug juice powder added.

Recently, I have been able to wear shorts and t-shirt in the AM with my cycling sleeves and sometimes my rain jacket to keep me warm, and I’ll wear a buff on my head/ears and maybe gloves if it’s chilly. By mid morning I can shed most of the layers keeping my sleeves on because I can slide them up and down.

I’ll eat a granola bar while I’m walking and stop for some more food at 9/9:30 at a shelter or a nice creek. Then I’ll push on with minimal stops until about noon depending on what’s ahead. Most days I will do lunch between 1:30 and 2:30. This is usually my longest break of the day, ~45 mins. Any longer and things start to cease up.

I’ll tend to take some short breaks for water filtering or at a view point / rd crossing etc. and most days I will be at camp between 6:00 and 7:30. After setting up, eating, filtering water I will write in my journal until about 9pm. Then I will go in my tent and relax and write the daily blog post on my phone and read my saved online NY Times (I can usually download it at lest every’ other day). I’m usually asleep by 10:30.

The hiker named Lucky I met a couple weeks ago who thru hiked last year at age 72yr had a good philosophy…
Thru hiking is like a job and you make your big money before 8am and after 5pm

I think this captures it perfectly..most days I am doing 8+ miles before/ after these times, and that’s how I turn a solid 15 mile day into a big 23 mile day. I imagine with more daylight hours and some easier terrain coming, these distances will go up as well.

Good night