Date: 2018-06-09
From: VA 612, Kimberling Creek

To: VA 606, near Trent's Grocery
Miles today: 17.6

It was a quiet night at the hostel last night, a little rain but apparently none at the trail since it all seemed so dry out there. After a quick stop at the grocers for some light weight snacks for my day of slack packing, I was dropped off at the trail by 9:00am, land from there, things started to go south.I sat on the side of the road sorting through my stuff and after my ¢third sort¢ I realized that I was without my phone. It had to be in the shuttle van and I had no way to reach the driver to even find out. After 20 minutes the shuttle returned with my phone in hand and the day was looking up. I was finally moving. Another 1/2 hour later I was finally on the trail.The day and trail was in good shape, dry and cool. An uphill climb kept me busy for about 1/2 and hour and approximately 1 mile when I saw a huge black snake laying right in the middle of the trail...roughly 8¢ long and maybe 3¢ in diameter. I reached for my camera and it was gone; the camera, not the snake. So I took a shot of it with my phone and headed back to the trailhead where I was certain I left my camera and there it was on top of a guardrail bumper right where I left it. This day was beginning to suck.By 11:30 I had everything and was off, again. I made it to the first shelter within an hour and since it was 1/3 mile off trail and I didn¢t need any water, I passed it up looking to make up some time. By 3:30 I had recorded another milestone as captured in today¢s photo, 600 miles! I¢ll never tire of recording these moments, other than sleeping, they seem to be the highlight of my travels.The rest of the day had me followed by a pretty nasty sounding thunder storm, though it only spit rain a little bit. But the clouds kept the temperature in check for the time being which helped as I was steadily consuming my water supply and there wasn¢t a source on the trail for 10 miles. Fortunately I arrived at a shelter with water and drank to my hearts content. My friends Spoon and Renoir were there, Renoir was napping while Spoon was sharing his asparagus with two others, Spillson, because he spills everything and his hiking partner, JFC. JFC is an unofficial name for ¢Jane From Canada¢ who has yet to be tagged with a real trail name. You would think that 600 miles in you would have somehow demonstrated your trail abilities or inabilities and received a name.As the five of us sat around the shelter catching up for awhile, we were visited by a doe. You know, a deer? A female deer? Anyway, she circled about and even allowed me to approach her to within 40¢ for a picture. And as the we separated to go our own ways, the deer seemed to follow along side Renoir and me at a distance of 100¢ down the side of a ridge. She stayed with us for a good 10 minutes before our trail headed off to the west.All four of the people I met at that last shelter were on their way to camp at Dismal Falls that night. I headed into Pearisburg and am camping at a hostel run by a local baptist church. The facilities here are top rate and the staff just wonderful. But the guests are allowed to ¢unwind¢ from the trail and they really aren¢t holding back from partying. I¢m pretty tired and shouldn¢t have too much trouble getting to sleep.