Date: 2016-05-25
From: James River Foot Bridge

To: Punchbowl Shelter
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: clear sky

After a bad night of sleep in parking area and thoughts of bears filling my head I was up well before 6:00am. The patrol officers had brought us backwards three in a half miles. I mean I am happy I did not get eaten by a bear, but it stinks to have to redo those miles. I decided to walk the Blue Ridge Parkway down to Petite Gap where I left off. The Parkway follows the AT very closely. It is really strange because there is hardly any traffic on it and it is beautiful with a lot of parking areas with fantastic view. It took me two hours to get back to Petite Gap which is where all the excitement happened last night and where I left off. I was feeling very unsure about heading into the forest at this place. My gut said not to. I knew the group in front of me would be far far in front and the group behind would be far far behind. I did not want to be in that area alone so I called a shuttle and had him drive me ten miles down the trail to the James River Footbridge, which is the longest footbridge on the entire AT. I liked that this river was so big. To me it felt like a boarder for all those bears on the one side and I felt much better being on the other side. I do plan on coming back and doing those ten miles along with the sixteen in Hot Springs that I was forced to skip due to he wild fires. Both places are on the I81 corridor so I can hit them on the same trip back and then go visit my sister and her family. So when I got dropped off at the bridge it was only 9:30am. I wanted to go out on the bridge and walk across so I did. When I got almost all the way to the other side Scorpion walked out of the woods onto the bridge and walked straight to me. It was so nice to see a friendly face and person. She had been ahead of me for a while now. We stopped and talked and I told her about the bear and the entire nights events. She was getting picked up at the bridge and getting off the trail to be in a friends wedding. I sat with her until her ride came. After she left another super nice person who I have come to know appeared from the bridge. Rucker. I had to tell her my story. She was going to hitch into town and resupply. She asked me to come and I went back and forth in my mind as to if I wanted to go but in the end I decided not to. I was pretty well beat physically and emotionally. I wanted to do the 10.5 miles to Punchbowl Shelter and I wanted to go slow and get there early and try to relax a bit. It was also mostly up hill with some big climbs. She ended up getting a ride in like two seconds like all females do and then she was off to town. I headed up the trail. It was a very slow methodical hike. I had no energy and it was very hot as the temps rose into the upper eighties. I think all the factors from the day before just sapped everything out of me. The climbs were tough but I managed to make it to he shelter by around 4:30pm. The views from on top of the mountain were amazing and there were bushes flowering everywhere. It was hard for me to enjoy it like I normally would though. All I could think about was getting to camp and getting in my tent. So I set up and did the normal camp stuff. Rucker showed up about forty five minutes after me so she did dang good getting to town and back and then up the mountain. I have about twelve miles to a hostel that I am staying at tomorrow. One of the things I did by running down the trail the night before was I now have a new blister on my heel so that stinks. I hope it feels better in the morning.