Date: 2012-10-10
From: Rendezvous Motel, Pearisburg, Virginia

To: Wapiti Shelter
Miles today: 16.6
Weather: scattered clouds

Today marks the beginning of my fourth month, and hopefully last full month, on the AT. Maine seems both like ancient history and a place I was just visiting yesterday. Ironically, I froze last night in the motel because we left the fan on the heating unit running all night, and I was too lazy to get up in the middle of the night to turn it off or to turn on some heat. Will and I headed to Hardee's (about a half-mile walk into town along a broad highway with a narrow shoulder, though fortunately also a highway with very light traffic). I went crazy ordering just about everything that caught my eye at Hardee's, though somehow my total only came to about $6.00.As the converse to the more popular axiom "what goes up must go down," on the Appalachian Trail the axiom is "a trail that goes down must go up." That is very true going either direction out of Pearisburg. The climb for us up to beautiful Angels' Rest / Pearis Mountain was quite the challenge, especially with Hardee's food stirring around in my stomach. I also carried a liter of Coke out of town in my water bottle [which is just a plastic bottle sold by Poland Springs] and realized about halfway up the mountain that it was about to explode. I had to carefully relieve the pressure build-up from the carbonation then spent several minutes shaking out the remaining carbonation. Will and I ran into Ken Doll, Snickets, and Misery at Angels' Rest with its bird's eye view of the New River Valley below.The rest of the day was mainly spent on long, rolling ridges -- neither easy nor particularly difficult hiking. Most of the ridges were pleasant with grassy fields and old growth trees. There were occasional and notable viewpoints where rock outcrops created high enough cliffs to be above the trees. I also enjoyed passing through heavy laurel and rhododendron thickets. I said my goodbyes to Will just after Doc's Knob Shelter as he wanted to check out Woods Hole Hostel for the night and I wanted to keep adding miles. I did promise to call him when I get to Hot Springs to see if he can come out and hike for a day or two. The AT makes a giant parabola (look at me pulling out the Calculus terms) using the ridge then following the hollow to Wapiti, whereas the Ribble Trail goes straight down the mountain. It was tempting, but if I am such a purist that I generally leave a shelter on the same trail by which I entered, yeah, I'm not going to cut two miles.The shelter is at capacity tonight. Ken Doll, Snickets, and Misery made it, and I met Utah twins Joel and Jace giving us a full six. I am a bit weirded out by staying in this shelter, the site of the infamous 1982 murders on the AT, but it helps knowing that that particular perpetrator is dead. I decided not to share that information with my shelter mates since it would serve no purpose other than to make them uncomfortable.One last note: I met the AWOL, that is David Miller, the author of my guidebook today. He was re-measuring a trail segment that seems to be in controversy as to length. It took me a bit of 20-questions to get it out of him that he is the AWOL, but he seemed to enjoy talking about the book once his secret was out [and it was probably more than he wanted to keep moving rather than a desire to be elusive].