Date: 2006-06-05
From: Woodshole Hostel - Sugar Run Gap, Va

To: Holiday Motor Lodge - Pearisburg, Va
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: light rain

It rained hard and thundered a lot last night early, then just rained lightly off and on during the night. I slept very soundly. I woke up at 6am and thought about making some coffee, but decided to wait until breakfast with Tilley Woods at 7:30, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. Neville woke me up when she rang the breakfast bell at 7am. It was one of those "come and get it" bells, but in this case, it meant breakfast would be ready in half an hour, so get your lazy butts out of bed. :-)) By the time I was all packed up and had my wet tent put away, it was 7:30, so I went in for breakfast. The fireplace was going and it felt nice this morning because it was about 50 degrees outside. There were 4 hikers there this morning...Rambin' Man, Doc Gnarly, Jaguar and myself. I got my coffee and sat down. Tilley sat at the head of the table and talked to us as we ate. Her and Neville had already eaten. Breakfast was OK...a small piece of sausage and all the biscuits and gravy you wanted. I'm just not much of a biscuit and gravy guy. :-))) The coffee was good and the conversation was good. When breakfast was over, I sent in a journal entry, then thanked Tilley and Neville and started walking at 8:40am. I have been sleeping really well since I've been sleeping in my tent again. That seems to be the best way for me to get enough sleep. I end up getting about 10 hours of sleep each night that way. In towns, I usually only get about 6 hours of sleep. It was a half mile walk up a gravel road to the trail. The trail was wet, but like I always say, the forest is so much more beautiful after a good rain. It just takes on darker, richer colors.It was nice walking because it was so cool out too. I stopped at Doc's Knob Shelter after a couple miles walking and signed the register. A mile north of the shelter, I ran into a couple deer that took a couple hops, then stopped and watched me. I stopped and talked to them for about 20 seconds. It was funny to watch their ears moving, like they were trying to understand what I was saying. I guess I don't talk whitetail well enough, so they finally took off. :-))) Once again, the rhododendrons were magnificent. They were draped over the trail with full pink blooms everywhere. There seemed to be several miles of trail with rhododendrons like that. I had to keep stopping to take more pictures. You had to actually push through some of them. Too bad I didn't have some pruning shears. :-))) I got up to Angels Rest on Pearis Mountain and took a few pictures of the valley below, then started the long descent down to Pearisburg. When I got to Pearisburg, I headed right up to the Holiday Motor Lodge and checked in. It was 1pm and Baloo was just checking out and said that room 12 was a good, non-smoking room, so I told Lois that I would go eat lunch and wait on that room to be cleaned. I headed over to Hardees and had a $6.00 hamburger for $3.99. :-)))I also had a two piece fried chicken snack. The room was ready when I got back. I went in and laid down and almost fell asleep. I found some energy and hung out my wet tent, then went through my pack while I was watching The Weather Channel. Dinner time came, so I walked over to Pizza Plus. I saw a bunch of hikers in Dairy Queen as I was passing by, so I stopped in and talked to them. There was Weeks, Forrest, Pixie, Garden Gnome, Jaguar and about three others, but I can't remember their names. I got to Pizza Plus and ordered a small vegetarian pizza and some chicken wings. I was thinking the wings would be just OK and the pizza would be pretty good, but it was exactly the opposite. The wings were delicious!! I stopped at the Dairy Queen on the way back to the room and ordered a large vanilla milkshake. :-))) I also saw Rickels and Wild Bill in town today. Wild Bill's foot was swollen and he was heading off to see the doctor. Hope he's OK. It seems that ever since I walked some of the Florida Trail with LWOP, I just can't get my mileage back up to where it should be. :-)))