Date: 2006-09-13
From: Pearisburg, Virginia

To: Atkins, Virginia
Miles today: 87.4

Arriving at the road into Pearisburg I walked up the hill into town, got a coffee, and met The General outside of the Food Lion. Immediately, I called up Chad and he said he and his roommate Nate would be down in 40 minutes with lunch. We shopped in the meantime and sooner than expected they had arrived. Chad had prepared Guacamole wraps which were delicious and after eating that Nate gave us a lift back to the trail and the three of us headed up the imposing face of Pearis Mountain. Conversation carried us quickly up the mountain and we took a short break at Angels Rest which affords a spectacular aerial view of Pearisburg. The rest of the day passed easily on a very flat ridge broken up by a nice break at an exposed powerline with a great view of agricultural Virginia. As we hiked to Doc's Knob shelter we met a section hiker named Adrienne who is going South from Harpers Ferry to Georgia. We ended up crossing her path many times in the next few days and she was a nice woman. She hails from Western New York and has already completed the northern half of the trail. That night at the shelter we ate dinner and had a nip off the bottle of old forrester whiskey that chad had packed in. The next day we had a very relaxed schedule and didn't hit the trail till 10AM. We had an initial hill climb under blue skies which eventually leveled out into one of the easiest pieces of trail we have yet experienced. Great timing Chad. We ate lunch on a sunny rock and ate from a food bag heavier than I have carried since the 100 mile wilderness. The afternoon was incredibly easy and we talked about trees and future life plans to liven it up. In the evening we camped by Dismal Falls which looks as though it could really get flowing during the spring thaw. Adrienne camped nearby and we had a nice chat over dinner. Jon attempted and briefly succeeded at building a fire, but the wood was too saturated in this deep moist valley to get any sort of real blaze going. chad was supposed to call nate so that he could get picked up, but cell phone reception wasn't available so he decided to hike another 2 miles with us in the morning.  That next day the sun shone bright and we reached VA606 by mid-morning and parted ways with chad who hiked down the road to find himself a payphone. We crossed a very elaborate suspension bridge over a small creek before heading up and over Jenny's Knob. At the shelter we ate lunch and I made a long downhill trek in the search of water which did end up being successful, but took quite some time. Adrienne stopped by and forgot her groundcloth which I picked up and returned to her later that afternoon when we again crossed paths.  A few miles after the shelter Jon caught up to me, and he was accompanied by the fourth and fifth SOBO thru-hikers that we have met or heard of on this entire journey. They were in the midst of a 34 mile day and it seemed that they would soon be gone. We have since run into them a few times due to a few unusually large days on our part and a visit from one of their parents which slowed down their pace a bit. The rest of the afternoon was passed on easy high ridgeline that led to the Helvey's Mill Shelter. At the shelter we were surprised by an unusually large group of people. 4 section hikers, Adrienne, ourselves, and Goat and Stretch(other SOBO's) before they decided to push on. We all had a nice talk and retired to the shelter as an intermittent rain began to fall. I read "Atlas Shrugged" till late in the evening and enjoyed the simple pleasure of being warm and dry. The next day we got up early in the morning and descended quickly to a small stream. It heard that Stretch and Goat had gotten a bit wet in the evening and we would see them later that evening at the Chestnut Knob Shelter. The morning consisted of a long low angle ascent followed by one of the most pleasantly graded descents of the entire trail. At the bottom of that descent I saw my first example of Ear Leaf Magnolia that I had been looking forward to for a while. Right after that we ate lunch at the bottom of a gap. After lunch we climbed onto a long high ridge and ascended up to 4410 feet which is the highest elevation since Mt. Moosliauke in Maine. At that high elevation we stayed in a 4 walled rock shelter with another impressively large crowd of hikers. Among these hikers were a couple originally from the Chec Republic. They were the owners of a German Schnauzer which didn't particularly like me and would bark furiously whenever I would stir during the evening. The next morning we headed off down the trail through wet trails and very thick fog. The morning passed slowly but enjoyable. Lunch was enjoyable and I realized sitting still there just how cold it had been all day long. In the afternoon we crossed through very nice farm fields and walked in a very pleasant breeze. In one of these great farmfields I got confused due to a poor job marking the trail and ended up going on a 2 mile detour over hill and dale before finding the trail again. I still had plenty of time to finish the miles and moved along at a good pace. The wind was really blowing now and during the night a rain began that was to accompany us into Atkins on the following morning. Waking up to a stilll steady rain the only motivation to get going was the promise of a delicious breakfast. The rain continued all the way into town. We passed directly through a nice herd of cattle and before I knew it I was standing on the highway.