Date: 2006-05-30
To: home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Well friends and supporters, I am writing this from home. After resupplying for another 6 days at the Kroger store, doing laundry, taking a shower ( after 9 days on the trail without one ) and watching the ' weather channel ', I had decided to end this section hike here in Dalevile. We had been very lucky up to this point with all the bad weather. It had rained and been cold for a couple weeks and we had managed to get our tents set up or taken down when it wasn't actually raining on us. It would rain during the day or during the night but amazingly would be dry just long enough for us to get setup or tear down camp. Well, the next 10 days were supposed to be cold and rainy and I decided I didn't want to push my luck any further and be cold and wet for several days. Not that I'm only a fair weather hiker, but I had a bad feeling about how it would turn out if I stayed on trail. So after I told Tim I had decided to leave the trail, he decided to continue on for a few more weeks. I knew he would, so I gave him some of my food to round out what he already had and he was off. He is a much faster hiker than I am, and I won't be slowing him down, so he will no doubt get to Harpers Ferry by the end of May like he kept telling me I would. We decided to hike together again in the fall ( probably October ) for a few more weeks so I could finish the state of Virginia then.Anyway, the lady at the desk at the Howard Johnsons where we were staying gave me a ride over to the Roanoke Airport ( only about 15 miles east ) for a $20 fuel donation, where I rented a car. One of the group of hikers that Tim and I had been seeing at the shelters for the last week or so lived about 45 minutes away from me in Beech Grove, Indiana. She ( her name is Peggy, and I'm embarrased to say I forgot her trail name ) was going to take the bus back home for a few days before going back to Damascus for ' Trail Days ', then she would do some trail maintanence for a few days with a group from Kincora hostel , befor getting back on trail for a few more months, hoping to finish by August 15th when classes started for the fall semester. Anyway, riding back home with me would save her a couple of days on the bus and give me some companionship for the long ride home. So by 9:30am on May 15th, we headed back to Indianapolis together. I really enjoyed Peggy's company as she is quite a smart young lady, a good conversationalist, and the trip back went pretty fast. I got her to her house in Beech Grove a little before 8pm and then pushed on for another 45 minutes to my house in Danville.Over all this section hike was a big success. 254 miles in 24 days, with only 1 zero day, averaging just over 11 miles per day. That is really good for a section hiker. The trail in southern-central Virginia is still very rugged. Lots of sharp, slippery rocks of all sizes, climbs every day of 1000ft or more from ridgetop, down into a valley, then back up to a ridgetop. Tons of flowers, even those pink lady slipper, orchids. Whitetop mountain, Mt. Rogers, Grayson Highlands, lots of ridgetop views, huge rock formations, great cheeseburgers, a couple of good waterfalls, several big black rat snakes, more big rock formations, Audie Murphy Memorial, humungus old growth Oak tree, Dragon's Tooth, McAfee Knob, Tinker Cliffs and a ton of other stuff along the trail. I took 191 pictures, some of which I will post here on trail journals.For those thinking of a thru hike in the future, I have a suggestion. Starting your thru hike in Damascus about May 1st, then when you do Mt. Katahdin, flipflop back to Damascus and finish going south to Georgia. That way you avoid the ankle/knee busting thumping to your body and the huge climbs right away that Georgia and North Carolina give you. Not that southern/central Virginia is all that easy, but it is better than from Springer to Damascus. By the time you have flipflopped back southbound your body is more ready for what the trail throws at you. Now maybe if you are still in your 20s or 30s it won't matter that much, but when you are 40+ years old, it WILL matter a lot !Anyway, that is my suggestion.My thanks again to all those who supported me on this and past sections of the trail. It is a great adventure that I am blessed to be able to do when so many who really want to, but for any number of reasons are not able to do, and are following along with me. I hope you are enjoying my experiences as much as I am. Rainy, cold, hot, windy, stary, cloudy, sunny, slippery, sweaty, thirsty, hungry, aches/pains, at the end of the day the experience was all worth it. Nature has a way of humbling you back to where you are just another small part of the overall picture of things. Just like a bush or flower on the side of the trail, or a bird calling at the crack of dawn, or a squirrel running up the side of a tree calling out a warning. You, the hiker, are just another of a gazillion of things that are going on all along the trail, all at the same time, in natures world. No more or less important than any of the other things happening, but then again you are also equal to everything. A special thanks to Tim for keeping me out of trouble ( mostly ) and teaching me how to be a real long distance hiker. I actually do remember a few of the names of the plants, rocks, bugs and such that he has tought me along the way.I look foreward to the next section/adventure, along the Appalachian Trail !!!