On the AT: Pearisburg, VA to Daleville, VA

Overview:

Mileage-

Total: 1343.8 Miles

This Section: 91 Miles

Daily Average-

Total: 11.5 Miles

This Section: 18.2 Miles

Day 114 (24.3 Miles):

The hostel shuttle dropped Ziplock, Peaches, Stokes and his dog Melvin, and Giggles all off at the trailhead at 7am so I was up at 6am to ensure I had time to pack up all my stuff and eat a snack before we left. This other guy named Bryce was supposed to come too, but the hostel owner who was this tough looking lady just started driving away at 7:01am leaving Bryce behind in the parking lot. In her defense, she did make a point to inform us the previous night that the shuttle left at 7am SHARP.

It was a misty morning with occasional showers, but it had become so hot that I didn't even have on my rain jacket and I needed my hands free for the trekking poles since it was all uphill. I awkwardly walked up on Ziplock as she was stopping to pee and then pretended that I hadn't seen her and kept walking, but then she later brought it up and apologized which really only made it more uncomfy. There were several of the orange spotted newts I had been seeing on trail since PA out cause of the rain, but for the first time I saw a red salamander (pictured above) which was much longer and slimier than the newts.

Halfway up the mountain two girls who appeared to be in high school stopped to offer me a blueberry muffin, which I gratefully accepted AND they took my wrapper back, so they must hike cause hikers hate things that make trash they have to carry! By the time I reached the meadow at the top of the mountain the sky had cleared for a while so there was views of the valley below that Peaches was stopped to enjoy during her lunch. I wanted a dry place to sit and didn't really know Peaches yet so I took the side trail to the shelter and signed the logbook before pulling out some snacks. A day hiking old man followed me to the shelter and struck up a conversation that really only he wanted to maintain, so I acted like I had big miles to make and got on my way.

The whole day I was seeing rangers and cops on the side trails and roads because I was passing through the area where they are constructing a pipeline that will be detrimental to the AT and the surrounding ecosystems and so there have been a lot of protests regarding its construction. In fact, one protester named Nutty did a sit in on a tree for 49 days before they finally starved them out, and so as a result the officials were placed to discourage new protestors from coming or the brining of supplies into the area. More information about the Mountain Valley Pipeline is available here.

I made it to the first shelter (about 20 miles in) by 4:30pm cause I had such an early start and met back up with Peaches, Ziplock, and Bryce who had still managed to catch us despite having missed the first shuttle. I ate oatmeal for dinner, but Bryce convinced Peaches and I do push on with him to the shelter 4 miles past because it was so early, but Ziplock decided to stay behind since she had already set her tent up. The 4 miles were mostly flat, but the last mile was a climb which I had very little energy for so I took an excessive amount of breaks. Right before the end of the climb, I took a 0.2 mile trail to a water source where I saw some small, very awkward flightless birds which turned out to be baby turkeys. Once at the shelter I had a great time talking to these 2 older guys from Florida, one who was an "illegal" uber driver who had lots of funny stories about his clientele. Bryce and Peaches enjoyed hearing about my trail stories and thought it was hilarious how many flips and flops my hike had diverged into. I also learned that Peaches plays rugby too, and she thought I was just like one of her best friends from home named "Bri" who is evidently also a lock on her rugby team. I really liked Peaches and wanted to keep hiking with her, but unfortunately they were just a little to fast for me and I never saw them after that night...