Date: 2020-07-08
From: Sugar Run Rd

To: Rice Field Shelter
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Breakfast at Woods Hole is a real treat. Homemade everything: bread, strawberry jam, apple butter, butter butter, eggs, kale salad (though I suspect the watermelon and oranges were imported...). And all were delicious and plentiful.Butcher is nursing a painful Achilles heel and staying a couple of days. But he's a persistent guy. Plans to finish the trail if it takes til November. Boats hiked out before breakfast. I didn't notice the time and didn't get my act together until 10. Sunshine beat me out to have more time at the post office in Pearisburg.A cool dry breeze blew over the farm all morning. I could have easily stayed all day or maybe all week rocking in a chair on the porch overlooking the valley.The ten miles to Pearisburg over the ridge had only gradual ups and downs. After touring through numerous rhododendron tunnels it turned up and wended through thick brush under an immature tree canopy. The dense vines and prickers snagged at my arms and legs as I pushed through. Where the brush was controlled the path was covered with long grass that concealed rocks waiting to stub a toe or twist an ankle. The sky was overcast and it was relatively cool, if a bit humid. A light shower had me scrambling for the poncho, not knowing how heavy it might have become. Stopped at Docs Knob shelter, which has a new deck in front of the shelter to cover a muddy area. Thank you Roanoke trail club for making such a livable little vacation home on the AT!At one point as I traversed a rhododendron grove I heard the distinct hoot of the barred owl - "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?" A mile and a half of dirt switchbacks descended to Pearisburg from Angel's Rest, a large boulder with a view of the NewbRiver valley containing the towns of Pearisburg and Narrows. That dumped me on a mountain road that led a mile down to Pearisburg, conveniently depositing me at a Dairy Queen. Full of burgers and milkshake, I resupplied at Food Lion and found the post office was closed. As in, closed since May with all operations moved to the Narrows post office five miles away. Strange, since our packages were reported to have been delivered to Pearisburg. Sunshine paid a shuttle to take him to Narrows to retrieve his packages. I was able to simply call to forward my package home. It contains my old backpack, in case I had wanted to switch back after trying out the CDT for a week. The new pack works well so there was no need to physically accept the package. The post office will forward an unopened general delivery package to another post office at no cost. A feature thruhikers often use to "bounce" supplies ahead until they need them. We took the road out of town and picked up the trail at Pearisburg cemetery, then followed it across a highway bridge over the New River, passing an old Studebaker outside a little repair shop.The last six miles to Rice Field shelter were almost all uphill. While not a hard climb, it was late afternoon and it was hot, humid, and sweaty. The very opposite of how it felt at Woods Hole this morning.Had to get water from a thankfully running spring before reaching the top, where there would be no water for many miles. Emerging onto the open summit of Peters Mountain called Rice Field I could see rows and rows of ridgelines to the west, all of them in West Virginia. In fact my left foot was in West Virginia.The setting sun colored the ridges in shades of gold and copper, and highlighted tall strato-cumulus clouds that hung motionless in the calm air.