Date: 2011-05-12
From: Damascus, VA

To: Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 162.9
Weather: overcast clouds

5/5: Day off in Damascus.5/6: Hearty breakfast at Lazy Fox B&B, not back on trail until 1030. Forgot that Mothers Day was coming until now, so got a belated card in the mail. Not much to say about today's hike, as I can't read my handwriting :-0. Stopped .1 miles after Whitetop Mountain road, mile 485.9 and 21.5 miles for the day. Cold enhanced by the wind up here, once again. A guest at the B&B said that once I get past Mount Rogers I will be lower and therefore warmer temps.5/7: Delayed my start til 0700 so the sun could come up and warm things at least a little. Lotsa a rocks to walk on just south of, and in Grayson Highlands State Park. I HATE WALKING ON ROCKS. Which matters not. Of course the wild ponies were hanging around in the vicinity and I got the standard pictures. The young ones are very cute and hikers love to touch. After the rocky trail tread quit, it got much more foot friendly and I made better time. Big news of the day was scoring mondo evening trail magic provided by So Far and Mr Potatohead at Hurricane Creek Campground, down the side trail. Rolled in for lots of cold and hot food. And a beer, just one. Did the eat and rum thing, got in a couple more miles. Stopped at 'horse trail', mile 514.3, 28+ miles for the day. Got the tent up just as the rain started in earnest.5/8: Rain in the AM stopped just in time to attend to personal hygiene issues. Rain recommnced for a while just after. Reached Partnership shelter just before noon, but failed to order any pizza, instead called mom for mom's day. There was a weird guy hanging out at the shelter. Me: 'Are you thru-hiking?' Him: 'Any reason you need to know? I generally don't discuss my plans with strangers.' The conversation didn't get any better, and he landed a couple of good insults in the process. I left quickly. I was thinking of going in to Marion for refreshments, but passed, and rolled into Atkins/Rural Retreat VA at 1700. Very nice jasmine fragrance coming from bushes along the way in. Got a room at the Relax Inn, yet another motel that hasn't been updated in decades. 25+ miles for the day.5/9: Good breakfast pizza 'hunk' at Shell station. (Note that the Exxon Eats and Treats is closed and there is no internet access at that location.) Morning walk was through a wet meadow that resulted in wet feet. Lots of minor ups and downs today. Great lunchtime trail magic (can of soda and fresh PB&J) provided by Lumberjack and Lab Rat, thank you! Warm day, kind of humid and clear. Turns out the warm + wet feet is generating blisters, whereas the cold + wet did not. I tape my feet with Leukotape to try to prevent them, but my Montrail AT Plus shoes do not breathe at all. On previous hikes this lack of breathability has not been a problem as long as I took proactive measures. But in this warm, humid environment it seems that any unprotected area is at risk. And I never really noticed any hot spots which would have triggered some action. But I didn't notice any problem untl it was too late. Anyway back to the action, lol. Great views heading up to Chestnut Ridge, but then slow, painful, rocky walk across Garden Mountain. Nowhere to put up a tent in this mess. Finally down to VA623 around 2030 and found a decent place to camp. Almost 29 miles for the day.5/10: Hiking at 0615. A couple more rocky miles to stumble across, then the tread became much easier. Thought about going into Bland for refreshment, but was too cheap to pay for the shuttle, and wanted to get in more miles before the expected thunderstorms. Easy, loooong ridge walk, 29 miles done by 1700, tired from lack of sleep last night, so just stopped early at mile 597.4 'stream, campsite'. 5.4 miles to Trent's Grocery, so well-positioned for breakfast treats and short distance resupply tomorrow morning. 5/11: Quite the thunder and lightning display overnight, but only moderate rain. Hiking at 0600, overcast as but cool, at least at this early hour. Headed down to Trent's at 0800, back to the trail by 1000. There's a short steep set of steps to get back on the trail headed north, and some bit of the steps are missing. I tried to take a bid step up, and strained something around my knee, bad enough to have me limping. $#@!! At Trent's, I found a baggie sitting on the outside ice machine containing an AT data book and a note pad. The note pad bore the name of a hiker I had talked to earlier and had left for the trail before me. So I took the baggie with me, hoping to catch her and return the items. Which in fact I did! The strained knee is increasingly painful, especially on descents. The day is much warmer and humid and overcast. Combine this with the afternoon hike after Wapiti shelter which was extremely steep (approximately 20% grade in some parts), and walking was not too much fun. Eventually things flattened out and I plodded along. Made the side trip to Woods Hole Hostel to get cold sodas. Felt much, much better. It seems that the knee is not so bad when the pack is off, I was afraid it would tighten up if I stopped for a while. But it seems I have additional blisters now after closer examination. 30+ people at the Hostel, so I decided to go a bit farther. More rock walking up to Doc's Knob shelter. Found good tent spot at old roadbed just .1 mile before there and got water at the shelter. Met hiker 'Spot', three-time thru on the AT working on a fourth completion. That's endurance. Very nice guy. Sky overcast, but no rain yet. 21+ miles for the day. Less than ten miles to Pearisburg.5/12: Short bit of sky fireworks in the early AM, then fog and drip during the daylight hours. Realy steep descent into Pearisburg had me tiptoeing downhill, given the condition of my knee. Hit the town about 1030, found to my dismay that I had to walk back uphill on Main Street to get to the Paradise Motor Lodge, where a resupply box was being held. $37.50 to stay here and it is in the town, not one mile away like the Rendevous Motel. But it is another seedy place, most of the units are smoking (this being Virgina, I guess), and most of the units have some interesting long-term tenants. Hot water in the shower ran out rather quickly. But I will stop here for at least one zero day, the knee definitely needs it and I need to count my blisters.Things I forgot to mention: Turtles in the mountains! I've seen a couple on the trail. Big, 6-8 inches in diameter. And a couple of what I take to be scarlet tanagers, beautiful red-bodied birds with black wings. And many beautiful flowers.