Date: 2015-06-06
From: Camp site 982.4

To: Camp site 1006.4
Miles today: 24.0

We awoke this morning to a nice sound... no rain! We were eating breakfast in our tent when we heard a hiker coming up the trail. We took a look and it was Trudge. It was nice to see a familiar face. We caught up on each others hike the past few days we were apart and then we broke camp and we were all hiking together again.    The first few miles were fairly easy. Not to many big climbs or descents.   Just before entering Sky Meadows State Park, we met an interesting animal on the trail. It was a fairly large copperhead snake that was trying to swallow a mole that it had caught. We tried to go around it but it it would come towards us when we tried. Finally, Trudge was able to nudge it off the trail with his hiking poles. You will see the picture for today is the snake. We then started a long descent of 950 feet over several miles. The trail was extremely muddy from a weeks worth of rain.   It was hard not to slide on each step. Our boots and our legs were covered in mud by the time we got to the bottom. Afterwards, we hiked some small ups and downs until we crosses over US route 17/50.    After crossing the road we started a section of the trail called the roller coaster. I'm sure you can guess why they call it this. It is a series of tightly packed steep ascents and descents over 13. 5 miles. We had been dreading this part of the trail and now I know why. The trail up the first hill was straight up and nothing but rocks. Then as soon as we managed to get to the top, it started right back down and was just as steep and just as rocky. That first hill was a killer and we had 7 more to do. We completed the second hill and then stopped at the bottom to filter water since we were drinking so much. We saw an Oriole while hiking the second hill. We started up the third hill and about half way up we crossed a gravel road where we decided to stop for lunch. We set out the tent and our sleeping bags to dry while we had lunch. Then it was back to the ups and downs of the roller coaster. We did see a deer scrambling up the rocks. At one point, we could not tell where the trail was as the whole area was rocky.    We had another 6 miles to go to get to the Bears Den Hostel where we were planning on stopping for a pizza and some sodas. We would normally do 6 miles in about 2 1/2 hours but today it took us over 3 hours because of the difficulty of the trail. This had to be some of the toughest trail we have hiked. The trail was nothing but rocks for long sections which makes it very difficult to make good time. The trail was brutal and relentless today.   We did hit a big milestone during this section, we went over the 1000 mile mark. It is hard to believe we have hiked 1000 miles and still aren't halfway yet.   We finally arrived at the hostel just after 1700. We both had a soda and then we had a pizza, some chips and a candy bar. Just the energy we needed to hike another 3 or 4 miles. We left the hostel at 1815 and started where we left off on the roller coaster.   We had 2 more hills to climb before we would be stopping for the night. These 2 hills turned out to be just as rocky and steep as the others. Part way up the second hill we hit our second big milestone of the day, we left Virginia and entered West Virginia. We were both running out of energy climbing the last hill. At the top of the hill, we found a good spot to set up the tent for the night and soon had everything set up. It was 20:05 and we were beat. It was a very hard 24 miles we hiked today. I believe it was one of our hardest days yet. We did see lots of day hikers and section hikers today. We had a fun time talking with them. Seems the hikers today were very friendly compared to the ones we met yesterday. It certainly makes the trail a happier place. The fireflies have started to appear. We saw a few flashes tonight lying in out tent. For the first time in a few nights, we can leave our tent flap open. No rain today; this is the first day without rain in 8 days. Hopefully the trail will dry out a bit and we won't be sliding in the mud.