Date: 2016-04-27
From: Four Pines Hostel

To: Howard Johnson's
Miles today: 25.7
Weather: overcast clouds

So... after a night at a full Hostel and the decision made to slack pack I set out for Daleville. I got an early start and was hiking towards the trail by 7 am. Carrying virtually an empty pack and water made for semi easy going but it would still be a long day! 25.7 miles isn't just a walk in the woods! The hike would take me to Mcafee Knob and Tinker Cliffs along with the Kefer Oak Tree... Plus it was my dad's birthday so hopefully I'd have signal along the way to wish him a happy birthday.I made it down the road the half mile to the trail and started up the trail. I was paying particular attention to the greenery along the trail as I noticed coming in there was a lot of POISON IVY along the trail... I do not get along well with poison ivy and anything I can do to stay away from it would be great! A few miles into the trail I saw Cathy and Pam breaking their camp. I stopped to say Hi / Goodbye and remind them to sign my trail journal... but nothing yet... Char!I was making good time and feeling good about the hike until I started the climb up to McAfee Knob. Even slack packing the up was challenging... I made it up of course and took a few photos before heading out. I missed a turn and found myself below Tinker Cliffs before realizing and heading back to find the trail that went squeezing through a couple big rocks.I saw my first snake of the trail in a stream after crossing a meadow... I think it may have been a copperhead or something but it saw me before I could get my camera out and went behind some rocks. I decided NOT to hang out there too long to wait for it to come out and moved along up the trail. The Kefer Oak was pretty amazing. I was able to get some good photos with my camera but again... the computer in the Library here in Buena Vista VA doesn't have a SD card slot for me to get photos here... I am thinking I need to get a USB sd card reader thing... but then again... the thought of carrying that over the miles isn't the most pleasant!Between phone calls, downloading a video of my daughter playing A Thousand Years on her Saxophone and using Guthooks app for navigation my phone battery died! That was not good... as I had always not worried about my phone going dead cause I have a back up charger... but I hadn't considered it could go dead in one day of slack packing! So I had no way to call anyone if an emergency came up... I didn't know what time it was and I didn't have a guide book to figure out where I was on the trail... But there was plenty of daylight left and I knew I had to get to HOJO's anyway... so I just kept moving.As I finished a big climb and was up on a ridge the trail started to seem familiar. It reminded me of a day I hiked in 2002 with Pan and his dog into a hotel that had a Chinese Buffet across the street. In 2002 it was a Sunday and it was raining and we ended up going over to the Chinese Buffet since there was nothing else close by to do... We arrived when they opened at 11 am and sometime later... a woman came up to us and said "You eat too much!!! You go now!!! We close 30 minute ago... WE want to go home!!!" We both looked out the window to find it was dark out and were totally amazed that it was 10:30 pm and we had been there ALL DAY!!! Yeah... we got thrown out of a Chinese Buffet... That was a first!So... I kept hiking as fast as I could go and the further I went the more the trail came back to me... I descended off the ridge and followed the trail as it went through a vegetation like tunnel and I came out on the main road. The HOJO's was just a little ways to the right and it was the place I had stayed with the Chinese Buffet across the street! Only the building was now a Mexican restaurant and it was closed... Oh well... It would have been nice to see if I could get thrown out again!I checked in to the hotel and took a quick shower before heading over to the Pizza Hut for dinner...I really wasn't that hungry but I was VERY thirsty. I opted for the Pink Lemonade and drank 3 glasses even before ordering... it didn't take long for the waitress to bring me 2 glasses full so she didn't have to make so many trips! I opted for the all you can eat salad, bread sticks and soup. It was only $7.99 and I figured the salad would be good for me... They had a "loaded baked potato soup" that was really good. I just had 2 cups of soup, the salad and a couple bread sticks... I finished up and the waitress was nice enough to get me a to go cup for the lemonade... I was still thirsty! I went back and fell asleep quickly... but woke up dying of thirst at 3 am... I drank the rest of the lemonade but was still thirsty so went out into the darkness to see if I could get something to drink. Two of the gas station/convenience stores were closed!!! They had their lights on and people were pumping gas but the stores were closed... Char!!!Then I saw one down the hill from the hotel and went there... I ended up getting 6 quarts of Gatorade... since they were 2 for $3 and I was going to zero the next day and the hotel room had a refrigerator... I drank one before I even got back to the room and a second before going back to sleep...