Date: 2012-04-29
From: Partnership Shelter

To: Atkins, VA
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: scattered clouds

This morning we are heading into Atkins VA and its only 11.6 miles to get there so we took it easy this morning and left at around 8:30am. The trail was fairly easy in the beginning with a bunch of small up and downs but the pizza last night was really slowing us down. Big Sky and I saw our third deer this morning for the whole trip...I think I forgot to mention that yesterday we saw our first two deer in over 500 miles. The trail got really rocky before the next shelter so it seemed to take forever to get there but once we did we took a break to eat our lunch. From the shelter, the trail went down off of the mountain and down into a bunch of small farms and that was a good change. We knew we were getting close to town because we could hear someone mowing their lawn so we picked up our pace a bit. We were getting closer to the sound of the lawn mower and it was getting louder and louder. Soon it was so loud that we no longer thought it was a lawn mower. We then realized that the sound was coming from a power line. It was making a very loud buzzing electrical sound and the trail went right under the tower. We stopped before we went under and decided we had no option but to go under it so we quickly went under it and continued on our way. The trail then went through a historical farm with an old farm house, barn, out buildings and an old school house; the place was closed so we just continued on through one of the fields. We then ran into a backpacker who was hiking southbound, his name was Moose and he was heading to Damascus for trail days. We stopped and talked to him for awhile and he gave us some good advice from what he learned from his 2004 thru hike. We only had about an hour until we got to town and we were to meet up with Runner to split a room with him at the local motel so we had to get moving. We got to another field and had to use a ladder to cross the fence and had to do the same on the other side. The trail goes through a lot of farmers fields in VA and we usually have to cross over the fences using ladders. Today was a little hot so walking through the fields was hot and tiresome and it turned out that the remainder of the day we were mostly going through fields until we got to town. Once in town we found Runner waiting at the motel and we booked a room. First off we all took a shower and got out of our sweaty cloths and boots then headed up to the only restaurant that was within walking distance. We got there and found that it was not open on Sundays so we had to go to one of the gas stations that had a trucker diner and they closed at 4:00pm. So our only other option was to eat at the other gas station which had sandwiches, frozen pizza and boiled hot dogs. We were not happy with our options but filled up on all three and headed back to the motel. There were a few other hikers staying at the motel and we hung out and talked until it was time for bed. Tomorrow I have to go to the post office to pick up my summer gear and my new pack so we will most likely not be able to leave until 11:00ish and we only plan on doing 13.9 miles to the first shelter. Well its time for bed now...night all.