Date: 2018-06-25
From: Blue Ridge Parkway 92.5

To: Daleville, Va.
Miles today: 18.6
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up at 6am. It was a little dark outside for 6 o¢clock so I figured it was already or would be raining today.  BUT, I was in a motel that serves hot breakfast at 6:30am,  so I started getting ready for the day. Put my contacts in, brushed my teeth and hair, got my clothing together. Once I was dressed I grabbed my phone to see if it was 6:30 yet....nope.  It was 5:20am!  Ugh!  My glasses are on the night stand tonight! Our shuttle driver arrived at 9am.  It was Homer Witcher!  Homer is a 76 year old legend on the trail.  In 2002 he thru-hiked with his wife and two children who were 8 and 11 years old at the time. There are a couple of books about them. I could talk forever about him, but time won¢t allow, so please google his name.  I will add that two years ago at the young age of 74 Homer ran a full marathon in 4 hours!  He and his wife volunteer to maintain a portion of the A.T. to this day. Our hike began at Peaks of Otter Overlook.  A beautiful view from the get go!  I snapped a photo right then. It will be my photo of the day. The views kept coming all day long!  I did a flip-flop slack pack today.  The terrain was great! 18.6 miles down and I still feel good.  It was very much like a stroll in the woods only with a few sweaty UPs.  The biggest climb today was just over 2500ft.  The fun thing about a flip-flop is that I get to see all of the NOBO¢s. I saw about 10 thru-hikers today.  I knew most of them, and said hi to both Wicked and Reflex over the course of the day.  Late in the afternoon the trail grew wider than usual. It was like walking down a gravel road. I was far ahead from the others and just enjoyed listening to the birds chirping. There was light rain showers off and on all day. The tree canopy kept me mostly dry. I just enjoyed hearing the rain and getting an occasional cool breeze.  It was really really a pleasant day. During my time walking alone I came across two young deer grazing near the path. I took a picture from far away, but that was it. My presence made them nervous, and they trotted off.  I came to a road and waited there for my tramily. We all three started out together from the road into a pasture and up a hill. I saw a few cow patties, but no cows. As I walked through the field I could hear mooing too, but still never saw a cow. That¢s fine with me. The cows around here seem to have horns.  I¢m not fond of that. As we were coming down towards the road where our hike would end there were two bunnies playing around. It made me think of Galesburg(my home town) there are soooo many rabbits in the Burg!  A Blue Jay was flying in and out of the pine trees along with several Robins.  I love seeing and hearing all of the birds.  All too soon we popped out of the woods onto U.S. Route 220. We played Frogger across 4 lanes and walked straight to Kroger.  I bought some Naan and fresh Tuna Salad to put on it. I had chips with that and Watermelon for dessert. I¢m exhausted tonight,  but for the record I am officially past the 1/3 mark now!  Wooo hooo!  I can¢t wait to see what the last 2/3 brings! Until Next Time Blue Raccoon (2018)Where¢s your faith?