Date: 2015-05-21
From: Woods Hole Hostel

To: Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Despite my announcement yesterday that we were going to leave our pokey ways of the last few days behind, yesterday was not exactly a high mileage or action packed day. I blame the weather. I am even writing this entry the next day. I got up at my more or less usual 5:45 and took my stuff downstairs and out to the porch to pack. Cuben fiber is wonderful, but also very noisy!I made tea and sat on the swing drinking it when it started raining! It was only a few drops and lasted mere minutes but it was a harbinger of what was to come.I had settled up the night before so once I was packed up I could leave, but Yoda was told they'd just do that in the morning. In the morning though, they were busy prepping breakfast and she didn't get to leave until forty minutes later. So it took her a little longer to catch me. The rain was trying to fool me into thinking it would be no big deal. It started out really slowly, more of a mist. I had taken my rain jacket off but when it started to rain a bit more, put it back on. Then it rained a tiny bit harder yet and I decided to put the rain pants on too, hoping to keep my hiking pants dry. Ten minutes later, it was a full on, steady, soaking rain. The kind that is good for the garden but not so great for hiking. And it stayed like this for the next couple of hours.This is where I have gotten so lucky on this hike. I have had so very little bad weather and yesterday I realized if I had had more rain, I may not still be on the trail. I got chilled pretty quickly as the temperature had dropped from the seventies to the fifties and as the rain continued, some parts of the rain suit began to fall. The water that runs of the pack at the bottom somehow all ends up on my butt (I had noticed that the other day when I got soaked) and my rain pants started to leak. Excellent, now I was wet, chilled and felt like I had peed in my pants.Fortunately the terrain was easy and I made good progress towards Pearisburg. Then the rain stopped and my suit started drying. I just kept it on because it wasn't warm enough and I wasn't working hard enough to get overheated.Then, when I was almost to the road that would take us into town, I heard an incredulous "is that Airlock?". It was General Burnsides, who I hadn't seen since week two. He had been off the trail for a week for a wedding and we had a great time catching up. Yoda was right behind him and the three of us walked into town with thoughts of food and resupply.I told Yoda that during the height of the rain, I had decided to stay in Pearisburg for the night but now that it was dry again, I was ok moving on. She had had the exact same thought. You can see where this is going!The post office was our first stop as Yoda was very excited to get her summer bag (ironic timing) because it meant she could ship her bulky and heavy zero degree bag home. I also had a package here, but it took a lot of texting , getting the tracking number, more looking in the back, asking if it may have been under a different name than the one I'd given them and looking again before the friendly ladies at the post office managed to locate it. I told them it contained chocolate and was therefore of the highest importance and they completely understood. in the end, I did get my package and it was awesome! Thank you so much , Dog and Cat (no I'm not making that up)!While waiting for them to find the chocolate, I had asked what the best place for a burger was and they steered us to a little diner two blocks down. Again, not high on atmosphere but the double burger (thank you very much), fries and apple pie with ice cream were exactly what I had had in mind. And hot tea. To offset the ice cream. By now, we were waffling about moving on. We had run into Kingfisher who had told us that it would stay this way (very ominous looking but it wasn't actually raining) the rest of the day but be sunny and pleasant tomorrow. A weather check online confirmed it and also let us know it would probably be around 40 degrees that night on the mountain. Which is cold in a hammock in a summer bag...Long story short, we decided to stay. We resupplied at the Food Lion, conveniently located across from the motel, I caught up on email and the other journals (and Yoda's blog) and I had a nice long phone call with Gary. Our food bags are once again bulging, and of course we start with a long steep climb. But the weather is supposed to be "sunny and pleasant" so it's all good.Today we go back to our regular hiking schedule. No really! Open map in new windowWant to add a map to your journal?