Day 60 - Daleville, VA

I've come a long way since Atkins! Feeling great in Daleville, with lots to report.

Since my last post, I have walked 181.3 miles. It's also been 11 days, including one zero day, so I guess I'm averaging 18-ish mile days. I was counting on doing 20's to meet Becky in Waynesboro, but it's been rainy and miserable lately, so I lost some miles. The plan is to meet her 50 miles south of there, in Buena Vista, VA, instead.

Right after Atkins, I knew I was racing the bad weather, so I pushed for big miles and made it to a shelter 14 miles past town even though I left after 2:00PM, and I arrived before full dark. The next day I left I the shelter under ominous clouds, aiming for 19.1 miles, but the skies opened up, and after 4 hours of hiking up hill in a torrential downpour, I stopped at Chestnut Knob shelter. It's the first four-walled shelter with a door that I have seen, and it's at the top of a scenic bald. It was packed with drenched hikers, so I shared a platform with my friend Friz. I only made it 9 miles that day, but as soon as I got there, I devoured a handful of trail mix and passed out. I guess I needed the rest.

The next day I walked past a laminated sign nailed to a tree that offered a free place to stay off the trail, so I called the number and a British man named Trubrit picked me up at a road crossing in a battered old Chevy truck and brought me to his property in Bastian, VA which he calls Fort Bastian. There were a bunch of other hikers there who are veterans hiking to raise money for more veterans to hike. They are called the Warrior Hikers. They are rowdy and fun and a little crazy. Trubrit is planning to build a big outdoor recreation center, and meanwhile he is hosting hikers and getting the word out about his big plan. For now, its just a clearing in the woods with a field kitchen, a fire pit, and a generator. He offers camping and good company, and he makes a free hot breakfast every morning. We watched The Last of the Mohegans and played guitar and ate s'mores. It was an excellent way to recuperate after the epic storm hike to Chestnut Knob. I spent two nights there and slack packed twenty miles in between.

The next day I made it all the way to a magical place called Woods Hole Hostel. It's an old cabin at the end of a dirt road just south of Pearisburg, where a woman named Neville and her husband host hikers in a bunkhouse and feed them glorious homemade organic fare from their bountiful gardens. There is free yoga and meditation daily, and chickens, ducks, and guinea hens wander freely through the yard. It was raining again, so not only did I stay the night, but I zero'd there. I read about compost and mulch and Ireland, and I did laundry and ate five wholesome meals. The next day I marched into Pearisburg, picked at a Chinese buffet, resupplied at the store, and pushed onwards past a smelly, noisy chemical plant into the woods again.

I started hiking with three new people, Chuckles, Little Spoon, and DQ. We laughed all the time and told awful jokes while slogging up the steep ascents, and we also talked about some heavy topics, like politics and God. I love this part of hiking. The people I meet are wonderful. After a couple of days of hiking with them, though, I caught Rambo and Tails and our new friend Maker, and did some bigger miles to keep pace with them on the way to Daleville.

They say, "If you don't hike in the rain, you won't make it to Maine." Well, it's been raining every day. I have managed to stay dry under my rain fly or inside a shelter each night, and I start off each day not hiking in the rain. I even saw a storm coming towards me while I was up on an exposed ridge and managed to hide out under an overhanging rock until it passed. But eventually, the skies just opened up above me. I walked for two days in wet boots. I hang my clothes up at night not because they have any chance of drying, but so they don't rot. I put on wet clothes in the morning, and just as my body heat starts to dry them, I start sweating and they get soaked again.

The day before getting to Daleville, I hiked with Rambo, Tails and Maker over two iconic rock formations, The Dragon's Tooth and McAfee's knob. Since my phone battery was mostly dead, I didn't bother to take it out to get photos of the Dragon's Tooth. It was this huge, awesome, pointy slab of rock overlooking a beautiful valley. Miraculously, the weather cleared up and we had excellent views. We had to scramble over a lot of rocks, and by the time we made it to Daleville, we were so ready for a rest.

Then.... Lili showed up! She is driving up from Florida to New York and she met me in Daleville to hike a day with me. Unfortunately it decided to downpour again, so we've been hanging out in the hotel room. It doesn't matter what we do, though. Just getting to see each other is more fun than anything.