Overview:
Mileage-
Total: 1461.3 Miles
This Section: 117.5 Miles
Daily Average-
Total: 11.8 Miles
This Section: 16.8 Miles
Day 118 (14 Miles):
I woke up with the sunrise and watched it rise until it was bright enough to light up the woods. I packed up my sleeping bag and pad, proud that I had made it through my first night cowboy camping. I was a little worried about snakes since I was camped on some rocks, but the only issue I really had was with a cockroach that was crawling in my stuff when I awoke. About a half mile down trail I passed by the section hiker who had passed me the previous night, he also cowboy camped but it appeared he was naked in his sleeping bag, so I was hoping he woke up before the day hikers I saw further down hill reached him.
The walk into Daleville was only a couple miles and all downhill so I arrived before 8am. I really wanted some taco bell, which was in the next town the trail passed through in a half mile, but it was actually a shorter walk from Daleville along this smaller highway than to walk along the road to Troutville. It was a little sketchy walking aside the road for 3/4 a mile as there were no sidewalks and I had to cross a couple highway ramps, but I made it. Taco Bell doesn't start serving lunch till 9am, so I first went into McDonalds to use the bathroom and drink some Sweet Tea. Next I stopped at the Dollar General Market to resupply- I recently went stoveless so it was mostly candy and pretzels I bought, along with heavier stuff I'd eat that day like an avocado, strawberries, and babybell cheese. Despite the fact that I didn't have their coupon, they still gave me 5 dollars off 25, so I ended up getting quite the deal. Next I went into Taco Bell and got some taco supremes. I wasted about an hour in taco bell cause they had plugs for me to charge my phone and I refilled my water bottles. I was initially going to wait till lunch and hit up cracker barrel, but realized it would be cheaper and more time effective for me to just grab subway to go, so I got a turkey sub and some cookies and then walked along the highway back to the trail.
As I passed by the hotel, I saw the party group that had camped on Tinker Cliffs the previous night checking in. I hiked about a mile before really having to use the bathroom, but unfortunately was in a city park of sorts and ended up going probably in someone's backyard. On the plus side, I went really far off trail and found these enormous mushrooms... I mean seriously look at the size of this thing!
I hiked uphill for a couple miles (this happens after most every town cause they are all built in the valley) and passed this skinny old man named "Scoutmaster" who complained of his Tendonitis. At the top of the hill I feasted on strawberries as the box had gotten a little smooshed and the strawberry juice was leaking into my pack. At the next creek I stopped with the intention of rinsing off some of the sweat on me cause it had become so hot and humid in the last week. I generally avoid wearing bugspray and sunscreen so I can do this without disrupting the fish. When I put my feet into the creek a bunch of minnows started to nibble on my feet like in one of those fancy spa treatments and so I ended up wasting a few hours in the creek soaking my feet and having the "exfoliated" by the fish. I also changed into my sports bra and spandex and rinsed out my shirt and pants a little and let them dry (mostly) on a tree. I had planned to camp there, but when Minksy passed by I checked the map and saw there was a shelter only a couple miles ahead, and since I had packed out stuff for smores this would give me a place to start a campfire and people to share with.
I made it to Wilson Creek Shelter by 6pm and was greeted by a not particularly warm and friendly couple consisting of Nova (an young American woman) and Jack (a young Swedish man). I gathered wood for my fire and after several tries got it to take, then I ate my heavy stuff for dinner while the fire burned down to embers. No one else wanted my smores so I just roasted a bunch of marshmallows and made them for myself, except I forgot graham crackers so I used pretzels instead which was quite messy... The bugs were pretty bad and Nova and Jack were burning incense in the shelter so I set up my bug net and camped nearby.
Day 119 (17.1 Miles):
I woke up late- around 10am- when a bunch of guys sat down at the picnic table near the shelter to smoke. The previous night my water bladder had burst while I was asleep and so 2/3rds of my drinking water had spilt on the floor of my tent soaking my sleeping pad. I threw everything outside and drained the water out of my tent, but not going to lie I think the dudes thought I had peed in my tent cause they made a comment implying that and so I explained the story to them (unclear whether they believed it). I wanted to make more miles than I had yesterday so I packed up quick and ate breakfast at the table. There was a guy named "Wander" who told me he had given himself all his tattooes except the marijuana leaf he had on his shoulder which he "woke up with" one day. There was also two other guys- one of which was rocking a pair of pink short shorts, later a kind of whiny girl showed up with her boyfriend but I only saw them for a minute before hiking out.
I was low on water, but there was a source in 7 miles so I rationed my liter to last to there... but when I arrived the source was dry so I hiked to the next source which was hardly more than a mud puddle. To make matters worse, I ran out of my aquamira drops and had no way to clean the water. I texted my mom because I had no idea what I would do with no water on such a hot day- the next source wasn't for several miles and the next time I would reach a building with clean water was in 9. I sat there for a while considering my options, and realized I might as well hike on since I certainly wouldn't get any water just sitting there. By chance, two women were standing by the road 3 miles ahead passing out cold water bottles and snacks- once again the trail provides! I got enough water from them to make it the last 6 to the road crossing where I could get water. At the road crossing, I met another hiker named Metal Cat who planned to make a stop in at the campground later that evening too.
When I reached Middle Creek (pictured above), I walked along the road for 1.2 miles to reach the Middle Creek Campground. I refilled my water bottles in their hose and plugged in my phone to charge before going into the store to buy soda, burgers, ice cream, and fries... and to my luck water purification tablets- which was good since I would have had to either pack out like 8L (20 pounds) of water to get me to the next town or have my parents drive down the 3 hours to bring me a filter or new drops, which really would kill my being self-sufficient vibe. I drank a few bottles of soda to bring me back up to a 3L carrying capacity of water since my 2L bladder was broken. The lady cooking the burgers for some reason could only make 1 burger at a time and there was a whole group of hikers there ordering, so it took us a couple hours to get food. I managed to tag along with a group who had been there all day after we all ate and got a shuttle back to the trailhead, but it was already dark so we set up our tents by the creek. The main people in this group were Pixie, a giggly 20 year old girl, Metal Cat a young woman, Bush-Baby, a rugby guy who recently turned 20, and Duchess, a young English woman. I really enjoyed hanging out with them because they were around my age and so understood my humor and cultural references particularly well, but later everyone warned me to avoid the "Pixie Cult" because they were known for being loud at camp at night and partying... I still like them though. Bush Baby's Dad and younger brother stopped by the creek that night to bring trail magic for his late birthday and we all ate fruit, pasta salad, cupcakes, and Gatorade in the parking lot that night and stayed up until almost 11 talking that night.
Day 120 (13.9 Miles):
In the morning, I hung out with the Pixie Cult until 10am eating leftover fruit from the night before and listening to Duchess and Pixie rank the guys on the trail in terms of attractiveness (apparently marijuana shoulder tattoo guy was number 1?). I left camp before they did and we had plans to meet back up in a campsite in 20 miles for Caveman's goodbye "party" as he would be leaving the group to Aqua Blaze the Shenandoah (kayaking instead of hiking it). Caveman was obnoxious because he was a major gearhead and also was one of those guys who hikes in a skirt and likes telling you about how his alternative clothing choices make him a better hiker (also his penis kept accidentally getting flashed which was pretty gross). The climb up Apple Orchard Mountain SUCKED. It was almost 12 miles of steep uphill and there were almost no views all day. It was also over 90 degrees and with limited water sources I had to conserve, which made it even harder. Obviously I did not make it the planned 20 miles, but neither did the group, I still made it further than they did that day. After passing the guillotine (an overhanging rock on the trail that looks like it could fall on you but it actually stable), I stopped in at the shelter to wait for my new friends to catch up and take a break from the heat. The group never showed and I fell asleep and was awoken at nightfall when Nova and Jack came into camp. We all ate dinner quietly and then we both set up our tents away from the heavily mouse infested shelter and went to bed, well actually Nova and Jack had really loud sex that I had to listen to so I put in my earbuds and texted my mom to help me identify flowers.
This one we thought might be a dianthus based on the flower shape, but not so much by the way they are arranged around the stem.
This one is a Gray's Lily.
Day 121 (14.5 Miles):
I woke up around 8am and packed up all my stuff asap because the biting gnats were out in full force. Since I had already climbed Apple Orchard Mountain, most of the day was downhill or small uphills, with the exception of Highcock Knob which was a small but quite steep climb. I met back up with Giggles who confronted me about telling other hikers she wasn't very giggly, which I didn't deny to her as she did not have very much of a sense of humor and was not giggly. However, she apparently got her name for laughing in her sleep so I guess it's ok. I ran out of anything but chocolate bars and pretzels to eat, so I wasn't feeling very good hiking on just that in the heat but I pressed on. At the last shelter before Glasgow I met Rogue Cartographer who also turned out to be kind of a buzz-kill like Giggles, and by coincidence they had been traveling together ever since Stokes left (but not romantically as they both are late 20s and married). Today was both my 4 month Trailversary and I hit the 1400 mile mark. By the time I reached Glasgow, I also had hit the point where I had done more miles than both NOBOs and SOBOS.
Right before the road crossing to hitch into Glasgow I crossed the James River Footbridge, which is the longest footbridge on the AT (and maybe in the US?). I was with a NOBO whose name I never caught as he just passed by Glasgow, and then R.C. and a man named King Arthur, and Giggles caught up later. Because the hostel with a shuttle was full, we had to hitchhike into Glasgow for our resupply. Generally its easier to catch a hitch as a woman, so we planned to attempt a four person hitch, and then split into 2 co-ed pairs if that failed. We stood by the road thumbing for about 20 minutes with no luck and it was so hot and sunny! Just then, a white van pulled into the parking lot with a ghost on the side that read "Casper the Friendly Van" with an AT symbol on it. The others recognized the van, so after a few more minutes of unsuccessfully hitching, we sent King Arthur over to talk to the guy. As it turns out, he was a trail angel from Dalton, MA who was slack-packing a hiker named Charzard for the past week who he thought of as a son. He gave us all cold sodas, and because Charzard was still a few miles out drove us all into Glasgow for free. There were no seats in his van, just a sketchy looking futon, but he offered us chips and candy, so what more could a hiker ask for (Giggles was upset by the lack of seatbelts however and reported some car crash statistics). The man was very nice to give us a ride, but the smell of cigarettes and his crazy driving left me a little nauseous by the time he dropped us at the town park so I had to lay down for a minute after thanking him profusely for the hitch.
Glasgow is a very small trail town, with only a dollar general, a small grocer, and a pizza restaurant, but they do have this giant fiberglass dinosaur right in the center of town. The town park also allows hikers to tent and there is a shed with power and picnic tables for hikers too. They also have provided porta potties and a shower with hot water, though it was quite dirty with towels that had not been washed recently that all the hikers, including me, shared and a bar of soap someone had extinguished their cigarettes in... still much appreciated. I showered in my hiking clothes and lathered up with the shampoo someone had left in there avoiding the cigarette soap, and then removed them and wrung them out to clean my body. I hung my clothes on a line and they were dry by morning- and sort of cleanish too! There was a townie chilling with the hikers who would shuttle us the next day, and he very enthusiastically told me about how great Lexington, VA is for half an hour while Giggles took the first shower, and also the longest shower anyone has ever taken in the history of showers. Apparently the previous night a homeless man had been there and had refused to keep his genitalia in his pants and spent the night yelling, but thankfully the cops had came and removed him earlier that day, but there was talk amongst the hikers who were zeroing there about the fiasco. I got a pizza and some ice cream at the restaurant with Giggles and then resupplied at the overpriced grocer (PB and raisins). Tragically, they did not have a bathroom and the dairy overdose got me and lets just say I had to rinse my pants off later in the shower...
That night a bunch of the guys in camp had a couple beers and then began talking politics really loudly. Sometimes I like being one of the only women, but when a bunch of guys get political, things often turn into a "who is the most educated" contest and the dudes often become a little (or a lot) sexist. Take for instance the man who thought he was the shit because he majored in Environmental Engineering at Clemson... hmmm sounds familiar doesn't it.... but I'm just a girl how could I be studying engineering???? Anyway, the Pixie Cult didn't arrive till late and with those guys as company I decided to retire to my tent early.
Day 122 (26.4 Miles):
The townie who had his van parked over by the town park agreed to drive me, Giggles, and R.C. back to the trailhead that morning, and just as we were about to leave Pixie, Metal Cat, and Bush Baby hopped in too. Again there was no seatbelts, but this time Giggles made sure to claim shotgun and told us how if we crashed the rest of us would all die gruesomely... thanks? Back at the trailhead I left ASAP trying to distance myself from Giggles and R.C. who were getting on my nerves quite a bit if you couldn't already tell! It was easy to pass Giggles who is slow and R.C. stopped at the first shelter to wait on her. I hiked alone for a while, Bush Baby caught me almost at the top, but his speed couldn't match my stamina and soon I was far ahead of him as well. At the top of the mountain I ate some cookies and took in the view. There was a monument dedicated to a 4 year old who had wandered away and died at the top of this mountain, which I thought was kind of a creepy thing to have on trail.
About 11 miles into the day I ran into a group that was slack-packing back to Glasgow so they wouldn't have to climb the mountain (cheating). We stopped and talked briefly and I refilled my water bottles with some bottles someone had left as trail magic on the roadside. Soon after it began to rain. I met up with another slack-packer named "Slippy" about a mile past who recognized me from the park in Glasgow and started a conversation. He quickly became quite flirty telling me I was "the cutest slice of pizza he had ever seen" which I tried to play off as a joke. But then he kept getting weirder and weirder- he asked for my number which I initially gave him as he seemed to want to just hike together even though I told him I was flipping in a few days, then he told me about all the women on trail who were dying to have sex with him, and then he touched my face and told me I should wash it otherwise "no one would want to eat you little pizza" which made me cringe it was so creepy! At this point I'm just trying to ditch this guy but he wouldn't stop, so eventually I just told him I had to move on and that I'd text him later to meet up (even though I had NO plans to ever see him). The rest of the day my motivation was to get as far ahead of him as possible which is why I did the most miles I had done up to that point.
These were two more wildflowers I saw along the way- the first appears to be some kind of berry bush, and unsure what the other is but the bugs loved it!
As the day went on it became sort of drizzly, which meant there were a bunch more orange newts out, and this big red toad crossed the trail startling me. Luckily by the time I climbed Bald Knob (the same ridge Priest Mtn is on), the sun had come out again and made a beautiful display on the mountains. I planned to night hike to get further ahead, so stopped for dinner and to pull out my headlamp, but I ended up sleeping on a rocky outcropping at around 9:30 when it was still barely dusk because I was so tired. I didn't even set up my tent, just my bugnet and sleeping pad, but the moon and the stars were so bright I felt safe. About an hour later I was awoken by the sound of thunder and saw a big dark cloud fast approaching and so set up my rain tarp loosely in anticipation of rain. It did rain a little, but thankfully not too much since nothing was staked in since I had set up on a rocky outcropping.
Day 123 (26.7 Miles):
Today was Hike Naked Day on the AT (a Trail-Wide tradition rooted in the pagan tradition of being naked for the summer solstice). I did a little bit of night hiking in the wee hours of the morning in just my boots, and then put my clothes on for sunrise except at the shelter where this picture was taken. It ended up being good I did too since I ran into a whole group of children, it was an unfortunate day to plan that outing as I'm sure they ended up seeing more than just mountain views...
Since I was already up at sunrise I got to see the awesome morning views I normally miss by sleeping in such as the sunrise over the rock where I slept and the sun filtering through the trees and morning mist.
I had already climbed up to the ridge the previous night to evade the pink-blazer, so the morning was spent making little climbs up and down. I made it to the first shelter for a bathroom break and snack by early afternoon and pressed on to the Priest. Another Trail tradition I partook of today was confessing my trail sins in the logbook at the Priest Mountain shelter. Though I will not disclose my own sins, others wrote of sneaking into hotel continental breakfasts and pooping in inopportune places... it had me laughing hard even though I was all alone. I knew this was the shelter Slippy intended to make it to that night and I still had several hours of light and wanted to minimize the next days hike so I pressed on even though the skies looked dark. Going down the Priest was a boring 4 mile downhill during which I blew through my remaining supply of Jolly Ranchers (I suck on them when I hike to alleviate boredom sometimes). About a mile from the bottom it started to pour and thunder, so I opened my umbrella which at this point had been torn to shreds by overuse and was hardly waterproof even. It's mental though. It continued to rain as I walked on the footbridge and over the Tyre River and for a mile up the next steep climb.
I made it to the shelter a quarter up Three-Ridges (my last big climb in VA!) at 6pm and stopped in to eat my dinner which consisted of half cup of raisins, quarter jar of crunchy peanut butter, and a large chocolate bar, as well as to refill my water for the next day. I met two guys there who were particularly proud of their 20 mile day so I elected to not disclose that I was over 20 in and still going on. I hiked out of there and began the 4 mile steep climb up. I made it nearly to the top before the rain and dark forced me to set up the tent. However, I was singing loudly (for me) as I climbed and didn't notice the tent up in the fog and ended up awkwardly stopping right as I approached and then set up near them as it was the only good spot for a while. As I set up the tent it began to rain so I quickly finished and then got into my tent to arrange my pickup the next day.
Day 124 (4.9 Miles):
I got up around 7:30am this morning to find that the rain had soaked through my tent and splashed mud up the sides- it didn't matter much though since today would be my last day of hiking before being picked up for a few days off in anticipation of flipping back up to Connecticut.
The 5 miles to Reed's Gap went by fairly quickly as I had done most of the hard climb the previous day so there were just a couple little hills. It was foggy and rainy again this morning so there wasn't much to see, but I did find this freakishly large spider on the trail.
Once at the trailhead I sat on a rock and hid under my umbrella with holes in it (not particularly useful) for about half an hour till my mom arrived and took me to Golden Corral to wreck some yeast rolls and then we drove the 3 hours back home.
I spent the afternoon washing off my gear and clothes, showering, and tracking my progress both on the map and in terms of weight. As you can see below on the female body visualizer (left is now, right is pre-trail measurements), I've lost a bunch of weight and gained a lot of muscle due to exercising all day and struggling to eat enough to sustain my weight (5000 calories some days!).
