Date: 2013-06-20
From: Woods Hole Hostel

To: Pearisburg
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: light rain

Rose early after a great night sleep in a very comfortable, warm, and dry bed. I dressed in clean, dry hiking clothes and began stuffing all our gear back into my backpack and Bandit's. This packing routine always puts Bandit on alert for us to be leaving wherever we are at.... he's so smart. Now, never to let me out-of-sight, he followed me close as I clumsily carried a heavy backpack and dog pack down the wooden stairwell to the foyer. I dropped the packs out on the porch and headed back inside to the kitchen where a wonderful breakfast of fresh eggs, scrambled, sweet rice w/ a strawberry sauce, bacon/ham, homemade bread, and fresh orange juice greeted me. Neville and I shared a long conversation about running a hostel, how she met her husband Michael, how they came to own the hostel after her grandmother passed, and their plans for the future while I ate. While Bandit helped with the breakfast table scraps, Michael came into the kitchen carrying a young goat. He chatted briefly with Neville about the goat and then set her down on the kitchen floor where she came nose-to-nose with Bandit. Now Bandit had never met a goat before and was very, very curious and cautious and watched with great interest as the goat proceeded to explore the kitchen for any scraps. This place was so much fun!!!With breakfast done, we squared up with Neville, laced up my boots on the porch, and hoisted our packs. We were the first hikers out of the hostel for the morning. It was a 1/2 mile climb back up to the AT along the gravel road but the morning was cool, foggy, but dry. The trail was initially a hop-scotch pattern of rocks which kept us both busy watching our feet for careful placement. Mid-morning, there was a woman's call from up ahead. She noted that she was travelling with an aggressive dog, alerting me to leash up mine so they could pass. Bandit and I stepped off the trail to let her pass as she profusely apologized for the poor manners of her rescue. We did the normal dog person quick "Hello - Hello" / "Good-bye - Good-bye" greetings that dog people do to avoid the dogs getting tangled up with each other and then she disappeared behind us as fast as she'd showed up. She was the only hiker we saw all morning.Mid-day, we arrived at a huge power line that was draped from a distant mountain across the massive valley to the top of our mountain where we stood. It was spectacular and an amazing engineering marvel to me. The view of the valley was incredible. My phone lit up with text messages so we paused to call home and answer the incoming messages. As I stood there with my technology, Nomad arrived and also stopped to phone his father. It was good to finally have a clear signal after 48 hours of silence. A few miles further north on the AT, the trail arched to the North and blessed us with a beautiful outcropping and stunning views of the Pearisburg valley below. A young woman was sitting in the sun here reading. We stopped for our lunch and soaked up the sun.A mile or so farther we arrived at Angel's Rest, the last high point on this section of the trail before we descended into Pearisburg. There weren't many views from here but there was a young man and his year old husky enjoying the wonderful weather on a massive rock. He asked a ton of questions about the AT before we moved on. On our steep descent from Angel's Rest, we met an elderly AT Section Hiker named Tennessee Walker. He was passing us on the descent. In comparing notes, we discovered that we were both interested in slack-packing the same Section tomorrow and made arrangements to hook up together with Don Raines for transport thereby sharing costs.Bandit and I arrived in Pearisburg at the designated place/time to meet up with Don Raines who gave us a ride back to our truck in town. We headed straight for McDonald's and French fries and a chocolate shake. Given our poor experience at the Holiday Motor Lodge we instead chose to drive the 5 miles west to the Narrows and stayed at the MacArthur Inn, a fantastic old Inn that I highly recommend. It is a 'grand' Inn similar to the resort in 'The Shining' or the Mackinaw Island Grand Hotel with the high ceilings, huge doors between rooms, dining hall and ornate entry way. We had a lovely room in the hiking wing with a common bathroom area.After making arrangements with Tennessee Walker and Don Raines for the next day, we repacked all our gear for a slack-pack. A phone call home confirmed that all was well and I was still good to go hiking for yet another week. Laundry would have to wait until I returned tomorrow. A 21 mile slack-pack was in order for the next day, so after some journaling and TV, it was time to get some shut-eye. Thoughts of making tomorrow's slack-pack our last 2013 day of hiking began to creep into my thoughts. Hmmm.... maybe it was time to head home?