Date: 2018-05-23
From: Sugar Run Gap

To: Rice Field Shelter
Miles today: 18.4
Weather: few clouds

Day 49- It took a lot to roll out of the pull-out couch this morning. Broken Seal had some more computer things he needed to do. Muffins, yoghurt, a Naked juice drink. From where we left off last Friday, our next chosen resupply is going to be in 100 miles. I knew we would need a lot of food but it feels like I may have over-shopped (oops)! Luckily, we have lightened our base weights by sending some of our extra warm clothes, rain pants, and our warm sleeping bags home.After blasting out some final emails Broken Seal and I hit the road one final time with his parents. It was a long, fun ride. Feels funny when you can cover over 100 miles in a car in the blink of an eye and yet it takes us almost week. To soften the blow of saying goodbye to his amazing parents, we were fortunate enough to come across the one and only Miss Janet at the trailhead. After taking some photos with her and getting a passport stamp, she jumped back up into her trail angel van and we say goodbye to Broken Seal¢s parents. Today we felt like we were hiking like we normally do but our total for today barely broke a 2 miles an hour average. Even though it¢s hard to leave his parents, we were immediately reminded of why we love being out here once we started hiking. There were good views, the first shelter had an awesome porch, follow that up with the start of the rhododendrons blooming. I¢m really excited to see the rhododendron tunnel and it¢s full force. We lunched at an overlook at a powerline and then kept pushing towards Pearisburg. From the Angels Rest viewpoint, it¢s a steep downhill into Pearisburg but we were talking about life¢s existential questions and suddenly we were at the first road crossing. We had come across our first dried up water source; it meant we would have to do another 6 miles without water. Knowing us, we can definitely do it, it was nothing to worry about. We walked over the New River across a long bridge. Today we also came across our first non-potible water source along Landfill Road, no surprises there. As we kept hiking past it, there was a lingering smell. After we crested a particular ridge, the smell was replaced by the lovely odor of mountain laurel. Even though we¢re starting the green tunnel, it¢s moments like these that make the trails beauty become apparent in nontraditional ways. Staring contests with cows, Broken Seal spotting our first strawberry today, those kind of things. The AT seems to have traffic far more than just humans from the deer and bear prints we see once in a while to all the snails and millipedes trying to cross the trail as we walk by jumping to avoid smashing them. Or even seeing a large spider with many babies on board. After the landfill water, we crossed a stream with a sign telling us it was on private property. There were multiple law-enforcement vehicles that drove by but it wasn¢t until we kept hiking that I realized what they were there for but I¢ll save that for another post. Anyway, the next water sources were not too far off and we ended up pushing until 7:30 to make it to the Ricefield Shelter. As we crested to the top of the ridge, the shelter was set back in the trees with a large, grassy field in front of it. After chatting with the hikers there, we set up our tents on the edge of this grassy field overlooking the valley is below. After attempting to put a dent in our large food pile, we snuggled up in bed reflecting on how it seemed the trail was providing for us. We interpreted the hints of beauty as encouragement in a way to help heal the pain of saying goodbye to the most amazing parents we could¢ve ever asked for.