Date: 2015-05-20
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: The Captain's campsite
Miles today: 19.8
Weather: scattered clouds

Damn Pepsi. And flies. No sleep. Tossed and turned the entire night before finally drifting off around ~4:00am. Up at 6:00am, but, unable to spur Hobble on, I packed up most of my gear before drifting off for another hour. At 7:00am I finally manages to get him going. After we packed we headed down to the busy highway in hopes of hitching into downtown Pearisburg where we could resupply and attempt to recharge our gadgets some. Moosehead, having woken early to enjoy the sunrise at Angel's Rest, had already made him way into Pearisburg and was at Hardee's enjoying breakfast. Hobble and I made our way to the entrance of the plant, stuck out our thumbs, and hopes for the best as cars zoomed by on their way to work. Just as we were about to give up, a lady stopped and was eager to help. With Moosehead letting me wear his kilt for the past 2 days (which I'm completely sold on) the lady's first comment was, "Seeing as though this is the Bible Belt, I figured no one would pick y'all up with you wearing that akirt." Gotta love the South. Always wanting to try the trail, at 69 and busy with volunteer work for her church, she now watches for hikers to help whenever she sees an outstretched thumb.We were soon at a local grocery where we met Moosehead and quickly resupplied for the next few days. More Nutty bars and pop tarts for me, as well as some yogurt I would enjoy for breakfast later. With food bags packed, Hobble and I walked to Hardees nearby to enjoy our round while Moosehead headed to the post office before returning to the trail. Some older ladies immediately made conversation with us, asking about the trail, before offering us a coupon for biscuits and gravy as they left which Hobble would jump on. We sat and enjoyed breakfast for close to an hour and a half, trying to get as much battery life as we could. I downed Coke and coffee to try and wake myself up and would later pay the price in the form of stopping to pee every 20 minutes over the first several miles of hiking. Unfortunately my iPad takes an eternity to charge, reaching only 15% during that time, so I figured I'd be without batter life til at least the weekend.Back on the road with thumbs out, it wouldn't take long before another person was picking us up, this time a former thru-hike attempter. Hiking with his dad years ago, he said he had startednon Springer in mid March and had only reached Harper's Ferry by August. He loved this area so much, though, that he relocates here from San Diego 5 years ago. With a few words of advice for must-sees along the trail, we were soon parting ways as Hobble and I reentered the woods near last night's camp and were soon heading up Peter's Mountain, a ~1,700ft climb in the first 6 miles. It was already 10:45am. Stopping to pee every so often as previously mentioned, Hobble was soon out of sight and I would continue up, past the Landfill, until finally catching both Hobble and Moosehead at Rice Field Shelter a couple of hours later.After passing the shelter, we immediately entered a clearing overlooking a 180-degree view of beautiful farmland nestles in the valley below. A sign nearby stating we were looking into West Virginia. Though we don't officially "enter" West Virginia until around ~300-350 miles from now, we did spend part of today skirting along its border. Continuing on, the day would pass by nicely - great weather and easy terrain - but was otherwise pretty uneventful as we snaked along another ridge line for most of the after noon. One high light, at least in my eyes, came in the form of a random collapsable camp chair sitting along the trail in a grassy meadow overlooking the ridge we'd eventually be skirting later. With blue skies and heavy eyes, I threw off my pack and was soon very near sleep before Moosehead and Hobble caught up. With still ~7.5 miles to go, we needed to get moving.Through Symms Gap and Dickenson Gap, we'd finally see our first other hikers of the day in this section - 2 couples, both with a dog. The hardest part of the day came just before we began our descent off the ridge as we climbed a few hundred feet in a short period of time. With lungs racing, skin soaked in sweat, it was soon over and we were heading down towards Pine Swamp Branch Shelter. Noticing that it had several hikers in it, and not being big fans of shelters anyways, we decided do continue just over another mile to The Captain's campsite, probably one of the coolest places to camp along the trail.The Captain is a former Marine as well as thru-hiker. I wasn't able to meet him when I arrived, but I'm sure the guy is great. He only has a few rules and, if you follow them, your time spent here will be very nice. Living in a home along a rushing creek, he has several acres of flat grass which he offers to hikers to stay. One cool feature is a zip line that he installed to help hikers cross over the creek separating his land from the trail. It consists of a simple swing-like seat and a hook for your bag. You push off and can glide around ~25ft, just feet over the water below. It's a super simple setup, yet very helpful as well as 5 seconds of fun. Once on his land, you can camp pretty much anywhere in backyard as long as it's beyond a certain point which is the area his dog can roam in. He provides a refrigerator full of a variety of sodas - free of charge - as well as power outlets to charge your gadgets. Super thoughtful and convenient. Fortunately I was able to charge my iPad and will have enough to make it to the weekend. After a quick dinner of sausage and cheese links, pop tarts, and trail mix, it was soon time to call it a night as it was nearing 9:00pm. A few more hikers showed and we're totaling 10 here for the night. I was able to fall asleep until just after 12:00am. I tossed and turned til around 3:00am when a light rain began. I had my tent set up to escape pesky flies, but without my rainfly so I had to quickly jump out and set it up. Unable to return to sleep, it's nearing 5:00am and I've been up catching up on journals. It'll hands down be another tiring day ahead, but miles need to be made to reach our rendezvous point on Friday evening.This concludes this edition. Maybe I'll be able to fall back to sleep for another hour or so. A light rain has been falling off and on through the early morning hours which means a bit heavier pack tomorrow. I'll survive.Here's to the money saved hitchhiking, having 20 miles of trail to yourself, and the morning that'll be here too soon.- Cambo