Date: 2017-05-25
From: Angels Gap

To: Bobblets Gap Shelter
Miles today: 23.5
Weather: moderate rain

After my tent relocation I had no issues with water for the rest of the night, despite the continued rain overnight.We packed up and headed out, the fog still pervading the air around us as we began our hike. We passed a sign for an overlook, but didn't bother to head down the side trail since there was no chance of seeing anything but fog. We passed a couple people camped under a massive stone outcrop who hadn't even pitched their rain fly since the stone shelf provided ample rain protection. They had a sock placed near the campfire (presumably to dry it) which was in the process of smouldering as I walked by.I passed another view marked in AWOL to find it also obscured by fog, although the sky was brightening and through the upper layers of fog I could see bright white puffy clouds, which was hopeful for a nice day. A couple minutes after I had moved on from that overlook the fog did break and thankfully the trail was following a rocky ridge which contained several spots, which had not been designated a "view" by AWOL, certainly counted as a view in my book. A lake appeared from the mists below us, contained by the steep sides of the surrounding mountains. Past the lake, also to the west, a city was gleaming in the morning sunshine as well as the airport we had been hearing throughout the morning. To the east Daleville and I-81 were visible, both in our path today.We continued hiking, passing under a set of crackling powerlines that had a ton of blueberry plants growing under them, their fruits fully formed but still ripening. We descended into the valley and the amount of mud we had to jump over grew commensurately. We passed a turtle chilling in the trail and walking through a long series of dense bushes we popped out into civilization, emerging into a 4 lane road busy with traffic. Though we could hear it coming up, it was still a bit surprising to re-enter society so abruptly. We didn't have to walk far to come to our destination, everything a thru hiker could want: an outfitter, a food store, a BBQ place, and an ABC store. We ate at 3 lil pigs BBQ and enjoyed the free banana pudding dessert that they give to hikers. They asked us if we wanted them and we were confused for a moment... First that that was an option (we hadn't heard of their special offer) and second that it wasn't obvious that we wanted it. We recovered our wits and politely accepted. Lookout ended up packing out am order of sweet potato fries that he ordered after his first meal before they offered us dessert.We exploded our packs onto the lawn of the grocery store, laid out our gear to dry in the sun, and food shopped in shifts while the other watched the gear. While we were packing up a man drove up and offered us a ride anywhere we needed to go, a very kind offer we gratefully refused since we had everything we needed in this plaza.At this point Lookout and I split... he had to mail a package of spare gear back home and wasn't sure how long it was going to take. I'm meeting some friends this weekend and will be doing a lower milage day with them, so I'm going to push it a little bit for the next few days to get ahead of Lookout.  That way Lookout will catch me (and friends) right before they go home and he and I can continue hiking together. My plan for today was to go another 15mi, 7 more than Lookout intended to hike.As I headed out of town I found an Indian strawberry, another edible plant we had learned about at trail days, which I tried. The fruit was tasteless and had a ton of seeds in it... not sure I'd recommend it. I also saw many clover as I walked along the trail which was paralleling 81, but they weren't worth picking since I was carrying as much food as I had in my pack.I crossed under 81 (for the second time, heading south this time) and up through some fields into the woods. I mounted a ridge by topping a series of progressively higher hills and left the noise of the highway corridor behind. The hills felt hard today... I think the 20+ mile days are starting to add up.Lookout ended up catching up to me a couple miles before his home for he night. We made several interesting stream crossings, made so by the water being so high and quickly moving. In each case we were able to find a log bridging the stream and balance across it to stay dry.At last we came to the shelter and I stopped in for a couple minute break. We checked the weather and according to the radar it was supposed to start raining/thunderstorming any minute, so I hustled back onto the trail.I hiked as quickly as I could given the hills and the condition of my legs and eventually found the first crossing of the Blue Ridge Parkway, a road which threaded it's way through these mountains that we'd loosely follow for the next hundred miles.Whether the fact that it was a weekday, the evening hour, or the weather, the parkway and overlooks were deserted, which was nice. Every couple miles the trail would dump out at one of the parkway overlooks from which I could see the fields dotting the landscape below, more mountains in distance, and a patchwork of clouds illuminated from different angles by the sinking sun making them look very dynamic. As I watched a rainbow formed from some far off rain showers (that I hoped weren't headed this way) and I grudgingly took that as my cue to keep moving.The trail followed within sight of the parkway for a while before coming to another overlook where I found TRAIL MAGIC. 3 cokes sat on a picnic table at the mouth of the trail and I tried one, hoping that my taste buds had changed enough that I could stomach one and take advantage of this generosity. Alas, I managed to get through half of it before giving up. Coke is just not my thing.I finally reached the shelter just after 7, 3 hours after the rain had supposedly started, dry and happy to be done for the day. I managed to squeeze in the shelter since this site didn't have any tent sites (and anything reasonably flat that could be confused for a tent site (including the start of the path to the the privy) had already been taken).I had dinner and settled down for the night, day 1 of my extra miles done.