Date: 2021-08-12
From: AngelÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Rest Hiker Hostel

To: Stealth Site
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: broken clouds

Had a great night in the air conditioned bunkhouse at Angel¢s Rest hostel and woke up rested and ready. What I wasn¢t ready for was a trip to Hardee¢s with Quiksilver - once was enough for me. Instead I ate the fresh pineapple I picked up from the grocery store yesterday and forced myself to drink a liter of water to hydrate. The hostel owner, Doc Peppa (chiropractic and acupuncture available) drove Quiksilver and I back to the trail at 7am.  The staff at the hostel were all great and it was a clean and quiet half day off. It was a steep 2000 foot climb out of Pearisburg and frankly, it kicked my tookus.  I was soaked through and wore out after the 3.5 mile climb and drank half of the water I had carried out. We had planned to hike to the Doc¢s Knob shelter about 9 miles in, meet up, and see if the spring there had any water. It didn¢t. So we engaged Plan B and after hiking another two miles we did a half mile road walk to Wood¢s Hole hostel. Wood¢s Hole had been open since 1986, the current owner is the daughter of the original owner and she¢s done a fantastic job with the place. It¢s rustic, but has been modernized and had shade and rocking chairs galore. The owner welcomed us to rest as long as we liked and allowed us to fill our water bottles as well.  Quiksilver treated me to a 7up and we took an hour break in the shade. Doc and Professor came in just as we were leaving and we sketched out our afternoon plans. Quiksilver was aiming to do 43 miles in two days to meet up with a NOBO section hiker he had met coming our direction. So we had decided to shoot for a 21 mile day and hopefully camp near water. The briars returned with a vengeance in the afternoon and I ended up with some fresh scratches on me and fresh snags in my clothes. Thankfully, the last 4 miles had clear trail as we were pretty tired through the afternoon. Our water source near camp was a barely flowing creek, but the water was cold and clear and we tanked up. We got to the stealth site at 4:30 and spent an hour setting up before Doc and Professor arrived.  So we¢re all camped here for the night. Well, we four and about two dozen bees that started swarming my clothes that I had laid on top of my tarp to dry. I didn¢t notice them until I went to pick up my shorts and got stung on the finger for me troubles. I¢ve never seen this before: bees attracted to sweaty hiker clothes. I reasoned I have a brain exponentially larger than a bee so there must be a way to get my stuff off the tarp without earning a dozen stings for my troubles. Enter the 8 foot stick.Having scrounged a long branch, I gingerly removed everything one by one and slowly moved them away from my tarp, being very patient in letting the attached bees to fly off. Which they were somewhat reluctant to do. Once I had everything, I ducked under the tarp and stowed the clothes, then slid into my hammock and zipped closed my bug net. Now an hour has past, but the dirty buggers are still swarming around, on, and under my tarp. If they don¢t disperse by morning, pack up will be¢¦interesting. Tomorrow we plan to hike 22 miles, with the last water source being a gas station a half mile off trail about six miles distant. I¢m confident that some of this, will indeed be fine.