Date: 2016-04-25
From: Chestnut Knob Shelter

To: VA 615
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: clear sky

I got up today around 7:30 and the entire camp was deserted. There must've been 15 people at the shelter when I went to bed, and they had all left before I woke up. I must've missed the memo. I'm not a huge fan of getting up early unless it's absolutely necessary. As long as I make my miles for the day, I'm fine with sleeping in. Thanks to the new suspension system Learning Curve gave me, I save about 10 minutes on my set up/breakdown for the day. He gave me a set of whoopie slings that he handmade using some lengths of Dynaglide. To sift through the jargon; he gave me a pair of really thin, ultra strong adjustable ropes that I hang my hammock from. All I do now is attach a rope around two trees, tie a few simple knots, and I'm good to go. This morning I was able to have everything packed up in 20 minutes which has got to be a record. I hit the trail around 8 and made some great mileage. This terrain, while reasonably flat, has been particularly challenging for one major reason, water. Last night, we climbed 2000' up to a beautiful shelter with views all around us. But the water had to be brought up from the bottom of the mountain. So the 2 liters I brought up had to get me to the top, cook dinner and breakfast, and then see me off to the next source in the morning. Unfortunately the next source was the only one thereafter for the next 10 miles. I make a point to camel up at each source I come to. What that means is that I drink until I feel like I'm going to explode, and then I fill up my bottles to carry with me.After 15 miles I came to a beautiful river at the bottom of a strong decent. After crossing the footbridge, I walked down to a rock in the middle of the river where I laid in the sun for 20 minutes and drank as much water as I could. The sun has been strong the past few days, so a day with limited sources of water is a challenging one. I came to a campsite immediately after the river. Unfortunately the campsite is right on the side of VA 615, a fairly busy dirt road that works through the hills. I'm usually apprehensive to camp so close to the roads because of the heavy traffic. Let's just put it this way, I feel safer sleeping in the middle of the woods than I do next to a roadway in an area I'm not familiar with. When I got here, my friend Red Bear was laying in his hammock reading The Hobbit. I haven't seen him since we walked into Damascus together on that massive mile day.Together, Red Bear and I walked 20 miles through the night to get to Damascus. I guess you could say he's something of a "nightwalker." The majority of his hiking is done at night while everyone else is sleeping. He was a large part of the reason I made it through that challenging day. Though his pace is a tad bit different from mine, his high spirits and good conversation helped push me through. After catching up for awhile around the campfire, he set off at sunset to do his day's hiking. I'm sure I'll catch him again some night on the trail. I'm content with my 15 miles today. It was my goal to get a little more, but as long as I keep 15 miles a day, I'm on par to finish this journey within the time frame I've planned. Tomorrow, I've set out an 18.5 mile day that will put me roughly 5 miles out from my bounce box waiting for me, along with another package, at Trent's Grocery Store in Bland. The plan from there is to grab a good sub from the deli, grab a day or so worth of food, and then make it to Pearisburg where I have a full resupply waiting for me. The goal is to be there, 45 miles down the road, by Friday morning at the absolute latest.I'm trying my best to settle back into attainable mileage goals from day to day. As I mentioned in my past entry, my perception of a reasonable days worth of hiking has been skewed. But the formula is this; try to do at least 18 miles a day for the next 3 weeks and I'll be out of Virginia. I'm already over 100 miles in, so I know it's doable. Now that my Virginia Blues have come and passed in large part, I'm ready to go forward. At mile 750, the middle of Virginia, I'll be exactly half way home. Then once I finish this state, I'll be at Harper's Ferry West Virginia, the halfway mark of the trail. The momentum is in full swing, all I have to do is buckle down and hang in there for the ride.