Date: 2014-05-23
From: Pearisburg

To: VA 613
Miles today: 26.9
Weather: broken clouds

Yesterday afternoon I received a text message from Kimpossible asking if I wanted to get together with her and Sparkle at a lake house north of Pearisburg that Sparkle's mother had rented for the weekend. In the AT spirit of saying yes to new things, I accepted the offer without first consulting a map to see what the hike to the appointed meeting spot would entail. Later, I found out it would require 27 miles of walking from Pearisburg with two major climbs thrown into the mix. And in staying in the Holiday Motor Lodge's hiker room, slowly filling up with twenty-something's who seemed more interested in partying than hiking, I was fairly certain I wasn't going to get much sleep before attempting the longest day of my trip so far. All I could do was get completely packed up in the evening so I could make a quick exit in the morning.I took it as a good omen when, as I started to stir in response to my 5:45 alarm, the guy in the bed next to me rolled over and, completely unsolicited, handed me a banana. I supplemented that with a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit combo at Hardee's on the way out of town. I was thinking while wolfing down the mountain of tater tots that, were it not for my monster appetite, I surely would have barfed before making it out of the parking lot.I walked the mile out of town back to the place I left the trail yesterday, at which point it was 6:30, by far my earliest start, with the exception of the day I night hiked to make it to the trail magic at Sam's Gap. The trail out of Pearisburg is the least scenic stretch of the AT so far. It crosses a major river along a highway with only a jersey barrier separating pedestrians with the two lanes of oncoming traffic. Once across the bridge, it passes a huge industrial plant, where I watched a rabbit come to an untimely end by running under a car that was entering the plant's parking lot. I hiked for well over an hour up a ridge before finally escaping the din of the machinery from the plant below. Since I was the day's first hiker along the trail, I was constantly having to scrape the invisible spider webs that blanket the trail from my face and arms.The highlight of today's hike was the side trip to Captain's, a trail angel who lives across a medium-size river from the AT and whose fridge is filled with soda for thirsty thru-hikers. There are two options for crossing the river: fording or using the zip line installed for this purpose. I chose the zip line to get over to Captains and fording for the return trip, during which everything was going fine until I stepped on a particularly slippery rock, slipped, and found myself capsized in the middle of the river, backpack, iPhone and all. Fortunately, I made a quick recovery, and the iPhone seems to be working fine, as evidenced by the fact that you're reading this post.I arrived at the intersection of the AT and VA 613 an hour ahead of the scheduled 7:30 meeting time and feel surprisingly fresh considering I'd hiked a bit farther than a marathon today. Kate and Kim picked me up and drove me to the lake house, where we just finished a dinner of burritos and beer.