Date: 2023-04-13
From: Laurel Creek Shelter

To: Pearisburg
Miles today: 5.0
Weather: overcast clouds

What a night! What a terrible, horrible, awful night! If I had to guess, I'd say I slept about zero hours all night. I never, ever want to be that cold again. It was every bit as cold as the nights in Shenandoah, but without the propane heater and extra blankets. It was miserable. I listened to podcasts all night. I rubbed my feet and hands, trying to warm some feeling back into them. I kept looking at the sky, hoping for sunrise. I was miserable.Finally the sun did rise, of course. My plan for the day was a six mile hike to the next shelter and I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to do it, feeling as bad as I did after the chilly night. But, there are no other options, are there? I actually did even consider going back, thinking that the two and a half mile walk that would be downhill was much more attractive than the five mile hike to the next shelter, which included that 1.2 mile very steep uphill climb to start the day. But that was just silly. There's no going backward, and even if I had done it, there was no phone service on that country road, and it was miles from any town. So, forward it is!Until...Eagle Wings looked at his weather app. He had service, I most definitely did not. Thank you Verizon. Anyway, he said there was a couple of days of good storms heading our way. Today is Thursday, which is fine, but he said there were going to be big storms with high winds tomorrow, Friday. Saturday was iffy, he said, and Sunday was also bad. There were two waves of storms coming. So, great. What to do? I mainly wanted to start hiking, to warm up because the morning was still quite cold. I told him that if he wanted to get off the mountain and could get a shuttle to let me know, and I would probably go with him. I had no chance of getting a shuttle myself, with no phone service. So I left the shelter area, knowing that he was a faster hiker than me and would catch up to me soon and could let me know the scoop. I left him sitting at the picnic table eating his breakfast and started uphill. It was very hard, but I was determined, and at least it wasn't hot. I just started eating that elephant of a trail, one bite or step at a time, and made my way up to the top in a rather quick time for me! Eagle Wings caught up to me at the top with news. He'd found a shuttle that was going to be at the road crossing we had looked at, doing a dropoff. Could we make it in time to catch that shuttle for a ride to town? Piece of cake for him, but the time and distance was definitely going to challenge me. I told him to go on, and that I would give it my best shot. It was a lot of downhill for the next stretch so I hoped I could make decent time. So off he went, and myself following behind as he got out of sight. The storm wasn't supposed to start until tomorrow morning, but I'd rather spend it in town than in a shelter, especially with high winds. I moved as quickly as I was capable of hiking, and I proved to myself that I can do it, I can walk fast if I need to. I made it to the road crossing only ten minutes late, which was quite a feat for me!So I'm back in town. The two hostels are full as the hikers are all coming down off the mountain to avoid the storm, so I got a room in a crummy little motel. Crummy it may be, but it's warm and has a big soft bed (which is clean) and a shower, so it's essentially heaven on earth at the moment. Eagle Wings got a room here too, and we got some pizza and then walked across the street to the Food Lion for some fresh food to see us through tomorrow. I think I'll sleep well tonight!