Date: 2016-10-06
From: Dismal Falls

To: VA 100 Pearisburg
Miles today: 25.0
Weather: clear sky

I'm skipping ahead with my journal so that it is more current. I'll go back and update the missing section later when I have time, but for now will talk about my current status in southern Virginia with 620 miles remaining. I'm staying at a hostel in Pearisburg VA, which is one of my scheduled mail drop towns. Axl Rose is the caretaker here as well as a shuttle driver. I've been hiking with Curry, a 22 year old college grad from Virginia and Pretty Boy, an 18 year old from Georgia who is trying to figure out what he is going to do with his life. Axl is a thru hiker too, but is taking some time off trail to work at the hostel. I woke up at 5:30, sleeping on the porch of the hostel, a trailer home converted to hiker hostel. In the kitchen boiled water for coffee and oatmeal getting ready for a 7 am shuttle ride south to Dismal Falls and a 25 mile slack pack hike north back to Pearisburg. Pretty Boy and Curry slept outside in a shelter on the hostel property and came inside 45 minutes before our scheduled departure. We were ready at 7 to leave but didn't get out until 7:15 waiting on Axl. It is a cold damp morning and we have a 30 minute drive to the trail head. It turned out that Axl wasn't sure how to get there and the 30 minutes turned into 45 using the Guthook app on my phone to locate the trail. Guthook is an app that uses gps to locate you in relation to the Appalachian Trail and all of the milestones along the trail - shelters, tent sites, streams, springs, lakes/ponds, Mtn tops, ledges, anything of consequence. The falls are .4 from the trailhead and .2 from the AT. They are a beautiful cascading flow of water running over an angular slate shelf. We spent a few minutes at the falls before starting our walk back to Pearisburg. We started out with Curry leading followed by me and Pretty Boy behind. He is the fastest of us normally walking a 3-3 1/2 mile pace. The first 7-8 miles is rolling flat with a slight elevation gain passing through numerous rosy groves/tunnels, streams, sparse beech, oak, maple, and hickory forest. We passed an occasional stand of pines too, but they are few and far between. We stopped for our first break 5 miles in at Dismal Creek for a snack and 10 minutes rest. The flat continued after the break for 2 1/2 miles followed by a 1500' ascent for the next 2 1/2 miles to the top of Sugar Run Mtn. From Sugar Run the terrain rolls along between 3500-4000' for 11 miles along to Angel Rock, crossing Big Horse Gap, Sugar Run Gap, Rock Cliff Overlook and finally Pearis Mtn. Pretty Boy passed us on the climb up Sugar Run Mtn and was gone for the day until we found him at the parking lot at trail end in Pearisburg. Curry and I hiked together until Sugar Run Gap where we stopped for lunch and a 20 minute break. I left 5 minutes before Curry and didn't see her until the final climb up Pearisburg Mtn. The 11 mile ridge passed through a pleasant forest with an occasional patch of Rody's, chestnut trees, but mostly oaks, maples, beech and hickory. The day was cold with fog on the ridge backing off late in the afternoon. Approaching Angel Rocks, there was a nice ledge looking south with a good territorial view. Angel Rocks was a jumble of house size sedimentary rock - interesting and fun. From there it is 2 miles down to the edge of Pearisburg with 2300' of descent and another 1 1/2 miles of rolling down to the parking lot at trail head at VA 100 where I met Pretty Boy. Curry was 5-10 minutes behind. We tried to call for a shuttle ride into town with no luck. We hitched/walked for 1/2 miles and had two cars stop at the same time, one with one seat open with Seeker driving, and the other car with two seats open. What are the chances? Seeker and Next Step are two retired marines that I first met in Maine just north of Caratunk. Before it got cold, they would hike without shirts and were really tan. They are both covered with tattoos and my own name for them was the tattoo gallery. Seeker is a great guy and I always look forward to seeing him. We got a drop off at the Chinese all you came eat buffet in town and ate 3 plates of food for dinner. Stuffed, we walked the 1/2 mile back to the shelter after dinner, watched a movie eating ice cream and called it a day at 11:30. I slept on the porch again and din't get up till 6:30. Tomorrow is a planned zero.