Date: 2016-05-08
From: Pearisburg,VA

To: Daleville, VA
Miles today: 92.9
Weather: light rain

Tuesday (May 3rd) I woke up in our hotel room totally set on hitting the trail. After a healthy breakfast I got my things ready and headed to the post office to mail back some winter gear to my Mom. While the post office was open the "hiker store" didn't open until the 10am so I returned back to our room to wait. When I returned to the hiker store they only had awkward sized fuel canisters (too big for my pot) but I needed fuel so I purchased one and no Aquamira or better alternatives so I ended up buying a normal sized Sawyer to filter my water. By this time the thought of hiking 20 miles so late in the morning was not appealing and Learning Curve and I decided to just make it a zero day. The best part was returning to tell our "bubble" and they all decided to stay in town as well! The rest of the day was spent eating (2nd breakfast at Hardee's, a blizzard at DQ, late lunch buffet at Chinese and a whole rotisserie chicken from Food Lion for dinner), relaxing on the hotel patio with other hikers and playing Apples to Apples and watching tv... It was a very nice day . Wednesday morning was much more challenging to get up and moving but by 9am we hiked back down to the trail head and began our day. We hiked 19.5 miles to Pine Swamp Branch Shelter and fortunately the rain held off until hiker midnight (ie 9pm haha) when we were all in bed. Thursday I woke up to a cold, rainy day and did not want to get out of my sleeping bag. In fact I stayed in it for a solid hour after waking up and just talked to people from it as they packed up. It wasn't until Sweeper & Caboose left the shelter that I actually became productive. As I am a morning person I should have taken this as a sign. The second sign being 30 minutes later when a soaked man hikes to the shelter only to crawl in to his sleeping bag to get warm. I ignored the "signs" and began hiking at 9:30am while I was wet and the trail was either a stream or a mud pit it wasn't too bad... That is until 5 miles in when I reached a higher elevation and the rain slowed down and became sleet followed soon after by snow. It got to the point where I had trouble feeling basically everything but my core and had to keep going to stay warm and survive. I made it to War Spur Shelter by 2pm and after changing in to dry clothes got in to my sleeping bag where I stayed for over 4 hours trying to get warm. The rest of the day was spent eating and resting in the shelter.Friday was pretty uneventful but I will say the rain held off which was great since my clothing and shoes were still wet from the day before. Saturday was a new personal best (yes this keeps happening haha) as I hiked 24.7 miles from Niday Shelter to Catawba Mountain Shelter where I camped. The best way to describe the day is LONG, I hit the trail at 7am and wasn't done until after 6pm. I hiked over Brush Mountain and Cove Mountain (super challenging rock climbs similar to descending Blood Mountain) before getting to VA624 where North Stars (one of my thru-hiker friends taking a few zero days with his girlfriend) and Jane were waiting with trail magic! After pushing on another thru-hiker named Medicine Man who is taking a break from the trail as his dog recovers was giving out burgers and drinks at the parking lot leading to McAfee Knob. By the time I got to camp I was so full I just ate a snack and relaxed. Today I woke up at 4:30am in order to reach the top of McAfee Knob by sunrise. The view was spectacular and getting to experience the popular AT view before it got swamped with section and day hikers (who smell amazing by the way) was totally worth the early morning. Mismatch and I hiked up together so we could take plenty of pictures (check out my Instagram: noshingthrulife). Our second climb of the day was the Tinker Cliffs which were absolutely gorgeous. The trail literally has you hiking along the edge, fortunately the wind was blowing us away from or else I would have been terrified. We made it in to Daleville, VA by 2pm and now have clean laundry (not that is smells very good still). Next up is eating and going to Kroger's to resupply!