Date: 2010-06-10
From: Sarver Hollow shelter

To: VA624
Miles today: 22.9

Today ended up being probably the craziest day I've had on the trail yet. Neither Sideways nor I slept at all last night, so the thought of another 20 mile day was daunting. But we got up early, had some coffee and left the shelter early. We got to the next shelter six miles away in good time, took a break and set out to climb the next mountain. It was really hot today and the climb was mostly on an exposed ridgeline so by the time we got to the top, we were both really low on water. We both felt good though and decided to go for 20. We had some lunch, drank what little water we had left and hiked down the mountain. We were both so thirsty by the time we reached the creek at the bottom. I was having major beverage fantasies all day; especially on the way down the mountain. Some thru hikers dream of town food- there is even a girl with the trail name of Food Porn due to her apparently explicitly detailed descriptions of food and what she'd like to do to it, but it's never food for me- it's always drinks. I fantasize about all of the beverages I want to consume and it's the first thing I look for in towns. Anyway, we got to the water, waded in it and drank a liter as soon as the treatment was finished. Then it was on to the climb up to Dragon's Tooth. Our plan was to hike up, hang out for awhile and then night hike down two more miles to camp so we could make it to a grocery store that sells breakfast in the morning. On the way up, however, we both ran into a southbounder who told us that the hike down was really dangerous, so when we got to the top (finally), we decided to try to book it with the little daylight we had left (it was 8 pm by then) and make it down the mountain. The view at Dragon's Tooth was anti-climactic at best anyway, in true Virginia form, so we took off. Thank goodness we did because the trip down was indeed treacherous. We had to rock scramble and hike across sheer rock cliffs to get down, including a section called the knife's edge, which was a cliff edge that you had only a foot or so to balance across. We made it to a campsite right as it was getting dark and we were both so tired we just wanted to set up camp and go to sleep. We set up our tents, Sideways made a fire and we were choking down peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when we heard what we can only assume was a bear pacing around our camp. There is a side trail right by the campsite that leads to a parking lot and there are likely a lot of people that come and camp there, so the bear probably knows it's a good spot for food. It wasn't deterred by our fire or the noise we made and we feared that as soon as we went to bed, the bear would be in our camp. We were trying to figure out what to do when Sideways suggested we pack up and night hike down to the road. I was game as I did not have the energy to deal with a bear incident, so we packed up as quickly as possible and set out yet again. The mile and a half proved to be extremely rocky and again fairly dangerous and I couldn't believe we were night hiking that section. I only fell once, which for me was surprising. We finally made it down to the road and found a less than desirable spot to camp a little way up the trail, but by that point we didn't care; we just wanted to go to sleep as soon as possible. We set up our tents and I crawled in, ready for this endless day to finally be over. The good news is we hiked nearly 23 miles today and tomorrow it's just a short half mile hike to the store for breakfast and beverages...lots of beverages.