Date: 2007-11-21
From: Sarver Hollow Shelter

To: Pearisburg VA
Miles today: 24.6
Weather: broken clouds

mi. 24.6sleep hotelDest. Sleep Pearisburg, hike Va. 635 Stony Creek day 132 Another cold night on the ground. I'm closer to adding the sleeping bag. Plus I think the cold nights are coming back. I did manage to get up early. I was cooking and eating before sunrise. Torque had planned on sleeping in. He was meeting his dad on a road or in town 4 miles away at noon. But I think the food idea got to him. He was also up early and eating. Before I left we went to check out the cabin Torque saw. Turns out there is 2 old ones here. One is completely falling apart. Built way back in the day. The one close to the spring was some sort of out building. The spring had to be built up for the cabin. It was a stone lined hole you step down into. Today the goal was mileage. I got a decent start just after 7. Torque and I part ways. He is going to end up getting back on and be a ways behind me. In terms of in front. They are a few within 2.5 days. I did manage to get a cell phone call to my parents this morning. We finalized our plans to meet up. It turns out to be a pretty obscure road. I hope they can find it. Today I found a couple interesting things to check out. I wasn't going to let the big day stop me from seeing things. First fun thing was an old house right off the trail. This would make a killer shelter. It was definitly falling apart though. it looks like no one lived there in 50 years. Of course I went through it. There was some recent trash, along with some fire pits close. The place even had a spring out back. The second cool thing was another knob. Something about jumping onto a rock stitching out from the cliff. This one had a good view, just to get there you had to make a big step ver a 2 foot gap. More of a mental barrier with the drop inbetween than being hard. The third thing was just funny. Along the trail there was a wildlife camera pointed at the trail. It was on a tree right next to the trail. It was low enough that it would take pics of people's legs and smaller animals. Of course I had to have some fun. The camera got a great pic of a fish, a deer, and a monkey. Or at least my impresionations of them. What completes it is that I was hiking hard core (shirtless) at the time. I'm sure with the group in front of me that there are a lot of pics along these lines on it. It is up on the ridge anyways, not too much up there. I was running behind where I thought I would be. I came across the road access 17 miles into the day. It was around 3:30. I tried to call and see if I can change the place, but no cell signal. Time to get down to it and get somewhere. The terain was just not helping out. All of the leaves are pretty much off the trees now. Throw in some rocky terain, and you have a slow time wth some land mines of rocks ready to trip you up. I am glad I made it to the road before dark. The valley at the bottem was a giant rohadendron tunnel. Kind of confusing in the dark. I got to the road and decided to sit and wait. In a few minutes it got dark and cold. So I put on the great north face jacket. I also took the chance to read up on my book. The road was actually busy for a backwoods road. It was even paved with houses. The trucks, mostly hunters by the look, were flying down the road. At around 7pm I figured they couldn't find it. I wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't find this place. So I figured I would move on. The plan was to look for them in the morning and if I didn't see them by 8:30 hike into town. I crossed the street to find a sign saying the bridge was out on the trail. I could either ford the stream in the dark, not to mention the cold, or road walk 1.5 miles. So road walking it was. I was walking making noise along the way. I didn't want to sneek up on anything. After about 20 minutes I see a car flash its lights and pull over. It was my parents. They got all sorts of crazy directions to get there. Now my dad isn't the best driver in the world. I am a little nervous before my hike riding with him. Throw in the dark curving mountain roads and my lack of riding in cars. I was more than a little nervous. We finally made it to town, I managed to keep it together. At this point I had to eat. We were driving around to find a place, my only preference was no pizza or deli style sandwiches. I saw what looked like a chinese place. So we headed for it. Literly. It is in a plaza across from the hotel down a little hill. My dad turns off the road. Now to his credit there was a crub cut with a little paved section. But that was it. If my mom and I wasn't screaming in pure terror, I think he would have driven over the edge and down a steep grassy hill. We would have been fine, but that would have scuffed my mom's SUV something good. My I really was freakin out. I was still shaking just a little during the course of the buffet. I swear all these places are the same with the same menu. This was just a low class version. I had to hit up the food lion next door for some ben and jerry's dessert. After that it was to the hotel and some lounging. I did meet another southbounder in the lobby. MissingLink is staying here and hiking out tomoorw. She said the group just in front hiked out today. So I'm about 1 to 1.5 behind her and close to 2 behind the others. I think a few big days and I'll catch up with someone. Missing Link also keeps a trail journal. She and her hiking partner said they don't hike in the dark or crazy miles. So hiopefully I'll catch up soon and have someone new to talk to for a few days.