Date: 2018-05-17
From: VA 606 Parking Lot

To: Sugar Run Gap
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: light rain

Day 43- Our 6 AM alarm today was set to "I Touch Myself" by Divinyls. It¢s probably the earliest we've woken up in a while.  We were planning on doing a full marathon day from where we left off to reach Pearisburg by the evening. The third straight day of rain and rain is in every day's forecast for the next week. Today is supposed to rain the hardest and the parents opted to not hike today as there were not many road crossings to make this a shorter mileage option. As we wolfed down more continental breakfast, we were noticed by a large Amish family staying at the hotel for a wedding. This is the first time Josh has ever seen Amish people in his life. I¢m sure we were looking pretty funny in our very dirty rain gear and voracious breakfast appetite. Luckily, the rain wasn¢t too hard as we drove back to the trail head. There were some people camping at the parking lot; they looked a little miserable but were packing up nonetheless. The first 8 miles of today absolutely flew by. I think it might be the fastest we hiked yet. All the rain has made the trail a muddy mess with tons of puddles and rivers running down them so it didn¢t take very long to become saturated. All the moisture did make it look very beautiful though. It¢s a different way of seeing the forest. When we finally stopped for water and a snack bar, we acknowledged that we have awesome parents and we would rather spend the afternoon spending time with them. We had reservations at a hostel midway through the hiking day 15 miles from where we started. We called our parental units from a high ridge and they liked the plan. They said they were completely and totally interested in doing the 11 miles from the hostel tomorrow morning into Pearisburg and then we would all drive to Trail Days together. Knowing that our day was suddenly only 15 miles total instead of 26 made our hiking pace change from really fast to really slow. The rain had started to let up and we started to goof around more as we moved down the trail. Something I haven¢t mentioned yet is that we had a lot of aggressive wildlife interactions today. It started with a small but mighty crawfish near one of the river crossings. By the time I saw it in the center of the trail, it was up on its rear legs, claws up in the air snapping. Josh bravely and valiantly got it off the trail. Then, two snake encounters. They weren't aggressive, just  scared us a little. The most aggressive of them all was a snapping turtle! It was in the center of the trail and it¢s our habit to try and get all bugs and animals off the trail so they don¢t get stepped on by someone else - this case was no different. It didn¢t take much poking and prodding for it to become defensive understandably. But this little bugger is feisty and it took a lot of time to safely get him to the edge of the trail corridor.The hiking ended with our arrival to Sugar Run Gap and the Woods Hole Hostel run by the one and only Neville. Choosing to stay here was a home-run decision! The property had the coolest, quaint cabins surrounding well-down raised beds bursting with plant life. There was a creek running through it with a duck pen and a long field running down the valley for goats, pigs, and cows. Also, there was a friendly dog roaming around and a handful of cats that were not averse to setting up shop on your lap or in your arms. Dad and I had good talks on the porches around the property. Yoga was at 4:30 on the front lawn and then it went right into dinner prep. Neville runs this shop so smoothly with random people helping her make meals every day; I think her secret is patience. I bonded with her work-for-stay employee as I prepared Chicken of the Forest mushrooms that someone had foraged.The communal dinner was astounding delicious. The ambiance, the spirit of this place- wow! This a really special stop along the trail and I am very grateful to have shared it with the people I love.