Date: 2017-04-05
From: Laurel Creek Campsite

To: Stealth site north of VA 611
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: overcast clouds

I slept so good last night. I was tired after a long day of hiking. I haven't slept that well in a long time. I woke up at 6 and was on the trail by 7. The first part of the day was a pretty ridge walk. I had fresh legs so the hike to the top of the ridge was not too bad. The trail followed the creek with some cascades for awhile. Always nice. I waited till I got to the top to eat breakfast and enjoyed the early morning sun. I had a signal so sent yesterday's? journal to my husband and replied to some messages. Very pleasant start to the day. For some reason my pack was putting pressure on my right hip which it hadn't before. So I stopped once again to figure out what was wrong and I had packed a few things backwards. I changed the arrangement and then it felt fine. Weird how weight needs to be closer to the body. The sounds for the day was mostly traffic. Not very peaceful at all. I thought it odd, but the trail went up to a road. The trail almost always goes down to a road, so this was a bit odd. Then the trail followed the road for quite some time. I detest road walking and would have gladly yellow blazed that section if given the chance. I passed two groups of people standing around work trucks talking and said hi to both. After I walked past, the first group started talking about the thru-hikers starting to appear like we are a migratory species. I guess it is like that for the locals. The next group had a guy who inquired about the condition of my feet and told me to keep following the road. I walked over I-77 and waved at the cars, trucks and RVs. I finally made it to the parking lot where the trail goes back into the woods. Guess what I found in the parking lot. A trashcan?! I consider it my first trail magic as I love to get rid of my trash. It had a sign by it that stated "Please...No Deer Carcasses. blue barrels provided & maintained by 78 year old lady & 70 year old gentleman". Well I didn't leave a deer carcass, but thank you for allowing me to lighten my load a bit. I was very happy to be back in the woods and continued on my way. My plan was to get to Helveys Mill Shelter to filter enough water to dry camp about 5 miles further up the trail. I arrived at the shelter around noon and it was 0.3 of a mile off the trail and the water was 0.3 of a mile past the shelter straight down. That added 1.2 miles to my day, but a hiker needs water. While I was there I met four other hikers. Everyone was talking about the horrible storm coming. One couple and their adorable little dog were staying put. The other two were headed to the next shelter. But the theme was the storm coming. I was not sure what I should do. By then it was 1, but that seemed way to early to stop and the next shelter was too far away for me to reach. I decided to just go. I ran into 3 ladies headed south bound and they were talking about the storm as well. They were concerned about me being on the ridge for the night. There are several campsites up there, but they were all very exposed to the weather. I decided to bypass them and eventually headed down off the ridge. I decided to stealth camp down in this little valley and will tent for the evening. I will let you know tomorrow if I regret my decision. Thursday morning: I heard the wind howling last night, but didn't feel it down in this valley. I had some rain, but that's about it. This was a good place to spend the night. To Trent's Grocery today. Snow may have me adjust for the next couple of days.