Date: 2022-05-11
From: Va. 623 ÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Burke's Garden Hostel

To: Va. 625
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: clear sky

Well, I ended up taking another zero day Monday, & didn¢t get out hiking again till Tuesday. My wife & granddaughter conferred a lot about how much weight I¢d lost [from 155 or more down to 134, the lowest I¢ve weighed since college] & whether I was in condition to continue hiking. It felt like a conspiracy, tho they were right on some things. I¢ll admit I was weaker than when I¢d started & apparently not getting enough nutrition on a regular basis. At first, I proposed slack-packing the next 3 days the 52 miles we¢d skipped North of Pearisburg. There are only 2 access roads, & it might involve driving on some gravel [which Susan doesn¢t like to do]. The first day would be 21 miles, which seemed doable after a day of rest ¢ I¢d been able to average almost 17 miles the past 3 days with a full pack. They thought that was excessive in my condition, so we agreed I would continue South from Burke¢s Garden for an overnight & get to Ceres [Rt. 42] or somewhere beyond that.Back thru Burke¢s Garden on that long & winding road. Then I started along the ridge. A little rocky, but not bad. Views of the valley are becoming obscured by leaves now. I met a number of NOBOs thru the course of the day. By the time I got to Walker Gap, I could see how one could walk down to the hostel that way. I commended the hostel to other hikers, & told them how to get there, but no one seemed interested ¢ too early in the day, for one thing. Walker Gap has water too, but nobody ever seems to look for it there. People I met included Picha-Ya-Dagaa, Ben & Jerry, Slowdance, Lemon-Drop.The hill going up to Chestnut Knob shelter was steeper than I remembered, but not difficult Trail. The clearing around the shelter gave the best view of Burke¢s Garden all day; so I stopped a bit to enjoy it & to talk with 2 hikers who were resting there {Double-Check & Mutch, I think]. Inside was hot & stuffy; outside was cooler but hardly any shade. Guthook says there is a piped spring 0.1 from the shelter ¢ I¢ve never found it, but I have used the spring 1.8 South by a little pond. There I met ¢Allegheny¢, who was camping at the end of the pond. Coming down from the shelter is just that: 5 miles of downhill, the first half out in the open on a grassy road, then on a nice Trail thru woods. I had some very nice views of the Mtns behind me [East]. I was enjoying going down, but I met a number of hikers going uphill pretty slowly, including Heinekin [Neth].Mid-afternoon, I got a phone call. The women in my life had decided that I couldn¢t go on another day, even tho I¢d been looking forward to fording Lick Creek in a couple of miles. Susan was already on her way to pick me up at Va 625/ Forest Road 222 [That means the state doesn¢t maintain it all the way to the Trail ¢ either way, it¢s a gravel road].About a mile before the road I met a NOBO who was asking if there were any campsites in the next mile or so. That was the steepest part; so there weren¢t many flat spots, & I told him about the place by the pond, but he thought that was too far. Yet when I walked on a little farther, I saw that he had skipped numerous likely spots in the flatter part of the Trail. As I approached the intersection, I recognized it as the place where I had just missed ¢trail magic¢ last time thru, seeing the vehicle leaving just as I started down the last slope. Then, I had still made it another 9 miles to a hostel at Rich Valley road [now there are 2 more hostels before that!]. Anyway, Susan & I reached the intersection at about the same time & had a slow ride back & a good supper.