Date: 2003-07-08
From: 4 Pines Hostel VA 624

To: VA 311 Catawba, VA
Miles today: 5.9

Erin says:Craig and I slept in this morning at the 4 Pines Hostel. Nothing like easing back into the trail life. I was so tired from our last 2 days - the whole process of driving from Nashua, NH to Roanoke, VA... getting our rental car to the Roanoke airport... finding a ride back to the trail in the middle of nowhere... and getting started on our hike. We probably only got about 5 hours of sleep each night over the past 2 days. Needless to say, it felt great to rest up at the hostel since we were the only ones staying there. Craig treated us to orange juice this morning, nice and cold from spending the night in the hostel fridge. We woke up around 11am and the temp had already soared to 90 degrees. Shoestring, the resident hostel dog, was lying listlessly in the dirt in the horseshoe pit outside the front door. It was hard for us to get going in the broiling heat. The dog had the right idea.Craig and I walked the .3 of a mile down VA 624 to get back on the trail. It was nearly 1 pm when we started climbing. We were both completely drenched in sweat within minutes. Our hike today was through the "back country" of the rural town of Catawba. From the rolling hills we could see the homes and hay fields. After climbing a few hills, we emerged from the semi-shade of the trees and entered our first all-too-familiar cow pasture. It can be nice to walk through a cow pasture because they are usually gently rolling and provide a refreshing change of scenery. However, cow pastures also mean one has to carefully dodge splooges of cow excriment - huge pancake-like mounds littered across the trail. And cow pastures also mean climbing over stiles, ladder-esque structures that allow a hiker to climb over barbed wire or electric fences that separate fields. We ended up climbing over at least 6 stiles. They are not my favorite. I have a hard time negotiating the ladder rungs with my short legs. Whoever builds the stiles has the tendency to place the rungs very far apart, making it nearly impossible for me to climb down them with a heavy pack. I have to carefully turn myself around at the top of the stile and then slowly lower myself down backwards on each rung until I can safely plop onto my feet on the ground. It takes a lot out of me. I imagine I look pretty silly and awkward climbing over the stiles. The sun beat down on us as we had a steep climb up and out of the last pasture, back into the relative shade of the woods. We took a long break on the rungs of the last stile and enjoyed some Clementines I'd hauled up the mountain courtesy of my Mom. So yummy! Our hiking process today was extremely ssslllloooowwww. We paused to pick ripe and juicy blueberries alongside the trail. Cicadas hummed and whined in the trees along the way. (Oh yes, the cicadas are not quite gone yet.) Our hiking pace is not where it was before our injury break. Everything seems to take a lot longer, and the oppressive heat and humidity does not help. But I also think we are enjoying ourselves so much more, knowing that we can slow things down a bit and rest when we need to. I realize that I felt really rushed when we were doing high mileage days. I didn't like that feeling of constantly trying to get to the next shelter or town or whatever as quickly as possible. It took a lot of the fun out of hiking. During the afternoon we travelled over many small hills in what seemed like an endless series of ups and downs. We kept peering through the trees and spotting landmarks in the town of Catawba down below. We had planned to hike 10 miles today to stay at Catawba Mountain Shelter, but the heat and our slow pace intervened. We were craving the icy cold Dr. Pepper's in the fridge at the 4 Pines Hostel. Without too much debate or convincing, we decided to hike to where the trail crosses VA 311 just north of the town of Catawba. From there we would try to hitch a ride back to the hostel and then hitch out back to 311 tomorrow morning.We got to 311 around 5pm. A pick-up truck with two twenty-something dudes stopped for us. They drove us to the Catawba Grocery near the hostel. As Craig and I got out of the back of the pick-up, we noticed that the dude driver was drinking a can of Bud. Road soda. Hey, we made it safely to our destination at least. Craig and I bought a few beer singles of our own at the store for our .6 of a mile walk down 624 to the hostel. Nothing quite like swilling a cold beer on such a hot day. At one point during our hike today, Craig had turned to me and exclaimed, "I'm leaking!" There was no stopping the sweat.We arrived back at the hostel hoping to have the whole garage to ourselves again. No such luck. We were greeted at the hostel door by loud voices and a plethora of barking dogs. We met a female thru-hiker from South Africa hiking with 2 dogs, a doberman and a weimeraner. Both dogs were tired and hurting from Dragon's Tooth. We also met a section-hiking couple and their 12 year-old son. They too had 2 dogs. Plus the owner Joe has 2 dogs. It was sort of chaotic! Everyone was being very loud and chatty about mostly trivial things. All Craig and I wanted to do was lie down and read. It didn't happen.We sat around and listened to stories about rattlesnakes, tick bites, dog injuries, digital cameras, other hikers, blah blah blah. Sometimes I have a hard time being around other people when I am tired. I worry that others will think I'm rude and snobby if I don't participate in their conversations or go off by myself. I think Craig and I tend to be pretty low key people -- we are pretty content to be quiet and occupy the mind with reading or writing. These hikers are really nice people, don't get me wrong. I just think large groups of loud, talkative people tend to overwhelm me at times.We expected that these "serious" hikers would be in bed by 8pm or so (that is when shelter dwellers start crawling into their sleeping bags). However, Craig and I are the ones who were lying on our mats ready to sleep long before this motley group! We both are going to use earplugs tonight. We got our same sleeping spot under the ceiling fan on the garage floor. It is really warm in here. And buggy. I am groggy from the heat, but happy to be here.