Date: 2015-05-11
From: VA 624. 4 Pines Hostel

To: Daleville, VA
Miles today: 25.7

Sleeping in the barn was pretty awesome last night. He had an industrial fan hanging from the ceiling which ran all night. It got chilly but it blocked out the noise from everything else. It was great. We got up at 6. We wanted an early start since we had a lot of miles to cover. Yesterday we had talked to Eddie, the shuttle driver at the histel, about slack packing. He said it was a pretty easy hike. And that after you got past the tinker cliffs it was all down hill into Daleville. So we met up with Eddie in the am and gave him our packs to drop off at the Howard Johnson. And we started our day.We made awesome time in the morning. The first 6 miles went super quick even with the huge uphill. It was another couple of miles to McAfee's Knob. McAfee's Knob is one of the icons of the trail. You have to get your picture sitting at the edge of the cliff overlooking the valley. It was breathtaking! I wish we could have gotten there for the sunrise, it would have been epic. Mighty mouse and I took each others picture and then some day hikers took our picture together. So awesome.Eventually we moved on. The next few miles weren't too bad. Ups and downs but nothing completely horrible.We were still doing pretty decent on time. Plus it's so much easier hiking without a heavy pack. I was carrying 2 liters of water and snacks in my day pack and it felt like nothing. When I put 2 liters of water in my normal pack it feels so freaking heavy. The next big climb was coming to the tinker cliffs. It was a bit of a struggle, but nothing to horrible. At some point around the rocks we made a wrong turn. The trail went off to the left of the rocks and walked along the bottom of the cliffs. It was a well worn path so I thought nothing of it. But it started to taper off and I realized that I hadn't seen a white blaze in a while. So we turned around and went back. It took an hour out of our day for this detour and it wiped us out. Even though the path was well worn, it was still pretty tough...narrow, steep in some places and lots of rocks...Pretty much what we walk on all the time.When we got back to the last trail marker we found the real path that goes up over the top of the cliffs. Amazing view but it was hard to enjoy it after the little detour we had. Now according to Eddie, the trail was suppose to get even easier from here. So far it had been ok, tough in a few spots but not as easy as Eddie had made it out to be. The next 10 miles from tinker cliffs to the road were hard. Very hard. There were a lot of ups. And I mean a lot. When the book and Eddie had made it out that it was suppose to be all down hill. It was hot and we were getting pretty tired. After the detour we were running pretty low on water too. And being on top of the ridge...there's no water around. Eventually We came to a shelter that had a nice creek going by it.After that it was a fight to get the miles done. My feet were killing me and it was just taking forever. And the trail was not easy, not even close. I was so over it. All I wanted was to get into town and shower. I was pretty gross. Lol! My legs were caked in dirt, I was sweaty and smelly, and it had been 5 days since my last shower. We finally made it to the road at 6. Much later than I wanted. That detour really killed us. I feel like if we didn't do that than we wouldn't have been so tired. We decided to walk to the outfitter first. I wanted to get another tank and shorts and Mighty Mouse wanted some shorts as well. This way we would have clean clothes to put on after our shower...all mine were very dirty. I found a tank on the sale rack but no shorts. On the walk back we went to Wendys. A huge lemonade and a frosty and I was happy! We went to the Howard Johnson to pick up our packs. I decided to get a room there and Mighty got one at the super 8 across the street. My shower was the best shower ever. I can't believe the amount of dirt that came off me. Incredible. But it felt so good!Mighty and I met up for dinner about 830 at the Mexican place next to the hotel. We really wanted margaritas. Which we weren't able to get due to the fact the resturant had thier liquor license taken away. So we just ate mediocre Mexican food and called it a night. I couldn't wait to snuggle in bed.